Silent Hill: Psychosis Break
by ELBloodySugar
Summary: When two young women, living in the Final Fantasy world, find themselves waking up in a hospital when they should have been dead, things get a little complicated.
1. First Break: Dying is such a Pain

Hello everyone!

Our names are Enx and Liz (hence the EL in front of our name). This being our first story on FF together, we'd like to warn you, they're a bit RP style instead of literature style. That is to say, it's pretty obvious that two of us were writing. You don't have to tell us this when you realize it.

This story is rated mature for various reasons including, but not limited to, sexual themes, violence, and language.

Naomi and Jinx are mine and Enx's respectively. The rest of the content belongs to Squeenix and Konami. Then, of course the idea belongs to our imaginations and lack of sleep.

That being said and without further ado, please enjoy this little acid trip called Silent Hill: Psychosis Break!  
>_<p>

Naomi held Jinx's hand lightly in hers as she showed her how to properly use a throwing knife. "Alright, now we're just going to flick it, ready?" The green eyed girl looked at her young companion. She liked this kind of personal time with the red head.

"Use your wrist like this." She mimicked throwing the knife with quick, smooth flicks of her wrist.

Jinx nodded, concentrating on how Naomi flicked her wrist. She copied it a couple of times before trying it with the knife, giggling madly as it bean someone in the shoulder. "Ooo Butterfly! I got one! Did I do good?" She chirped to Nao happily, hoping for a nod. The woman was her favorite non-player besides Enx. She took care of her and always showed her cool stuff that made Enx shake her head and mumble in an amusing way.

Naomi smiled and nodded. "Very good, Jinx." She couldn't help but be proud of the progress they were making. "Care to try again?" The girl held out another knife. It was the easiest way to keep Jinx occupied while Jant was away.

Jinx beamed as she snatched the dagger from the other woman and searched out a target, almost vibrating with happy energy. She'd been trying to decide between an old soldier on the road and a strange woman in a hooded cloak, which in this weather made ever Jinx question the lady's sanity, when a deafening roar caused the very mountain under their feet to quake. A gasp slipped passed slackened lips which quickly formed into a grin. Jinx had found her target. "Nao! There's a Humbaba! A really, really real Humbaba!" She shouted behind her as she bounced in place, rocks scraping at her bare legs. Humbaba normally kept to the Mosphoran Highwastes and, according to Enx and Fealty and lots of others, where like giant werewolves that loved to slaughter you. Jinx crowed happily. Of course she'd attack. 'Who wouldn't?' She thought as the dagger flew with a snap of her wrist and spun towards the frothing beast below.

Naomi's eyes widened as the knife struck the beast. Its attention was now solely on them. Naomi scrambled for Jinx and made to pull her away, struggling over the rocky terrain she was so unused to. Fear bubbled up in Naomi's chest and the adrenaline gave her a certain boost, but it was too late. The Humbaba, lightning fast in its attack, reached them and snatched them both up easily. Naomi closed her eyes as pain ripped through her body. She took a shuddering breath to scream... then all was black.

The throbbing blackness was nothing new to her. Jinx had lived through the before after all. She kept the shudder tucked in and quietly, shamefully bemoaned that last moment of insanity. That thing had been huge! And Fast! She'd barely had time to gasp and feel Nao's hand close on the back of her torn coat before the monster had its teeth in her. The rending, tearing, the way the claws had ripped through her chest, the pure bliss when finally, finally her spine had snapped. Jinx allowed a small gasp to escape. Oh, poor butterfly. She hadn't been in the Before. She'd, thankfully, passed right out. "Dilly-dally shilly-shally." She sang out in quavering notes, before sitting up and opening her eyes...to cuss furiously. They were in a damned Hospital room. And not the nice, pretty kind that Enx had gotten her used to. Jinx quaked in fear, legs already curling under her instinctively. This was a Before Hospital. With machines, and needles, and burning chemicals. A tear escaped. She wanted her Nao. Now.

Naomi groaned. She could see the fluorescent lights before even opening her eyes. Wait... Sitting bolt upright, Naomi gasped. A hospital room surrounded her. "Jinx?" Green eyes looked around panicked. "Jinx?" She stood, ripping the IVs from her arm without a second thought. She moved from her hospital room.

"What are you- Wait, no!" She could hear a nurse shout as she frantically left her room to search others. Her breathing picked up and her eyes became unfocused.

"Need... to find... Jinx." The panic attack set in quickly and she could hear little whispers at the corners of her mind. Danger... escape... run now... go... She had to find Jinx first. "Jinxy!" The young woman called out for her friend, her little sister.

"Someone get a doctor." She could hear the nurses call out.

Jinx peered out from under the gurney she'd woken up on. It's never safe on top of the things, and the walls creeped and whispered, like they used to when she was littler. Too little for the tests. The needle in her arm had been pulled out almost immediately, though the little blip attached to her finger stayed. Don't alert the players. Jinx giggled madly to herself through half chocked sobs. "Nao butterfly's gone...wonder if she flew away?" The thought made her stomach turn over and rebel fiercely. She moaned and clutched at her legs. 'Nao-fly,fly-nao-nyflao, Flay-'

"JINXY!" The shout scattered her thoughts and left her feeling icy blue. That's weird, only the Butterfly calls me that. "Butterfly." She mused aloud. Jinx decided not to move and gave control over to her younger instincts. The ones that never got used. She threw her head back and screamed.

Naomi's panic was escalating as each moment passed without finding her little sister. It peaked when she heard the screams. Horrible images flooded her mind. She knew that scream. She didn't know how... but she knew. "Jinxy!" She tried to bolt for it, but someone was restraining her.

"Don't let her go, get the medicine in, quick. Someone go check on the other one." A male voice barked orders as something stung her arm. It burned then, white hot. Naomi thrashed about for a moment, then she felt the effects of whatever had burned her like it was a lead balloon. The panic drained and she was tired, limp. She fell back into the waiting doctors' arms.

"Jinx... Need... Jinxy." She groaned.

"You can see your friend as soon as we can get you there." They began to move in the direction of the terrified scream. This was good.

"Jinx..."

It felt good to scream. It wasn't something that players punished you for either. Screaming was rewarded. So Jinx kept screaming, as loud and long as she could, until the walls stopped whispering and the gurney seemed safe and the tight, bitter rage calmed like a well fed feline. Jinx had just drawn breath to release another cleansing screech when the door slammed open and people streamed in. She hissed and pressed herself tighter together, counting quickly. Three, six. Two females, the rest male. One obviously in charge as he stood in the middle of the room and looked around, apparently confused. "Can't find me. Jinx's invisible~" She croaked in a near silent whisper. The plan had just started creeping out of the torn planes of her mind to get to forming itself when she saw a woman swaying on her feet slightly, restrained by a woman and man. "Nao!" The name escaped before she could stop it. Done is done, as done. She firmly pressed herself icy blue and waited as the leader player walked towards her.

Naomi groaned. "Jinx." She needed the other girl now. She didn't feel so good. She was shuffled along to another room. She didn't mind so much, wasn't this where the screams had come from? For a second she wavered in place.

"Nao!" She heard her name clear as day. This seemed to wipe away some of the fog that was creeping in on her.

"Jinxy?"

One of the doctors stepped forward and kneeled at the edge of the hospital bed. "It's alright, you can come out." He extended a hand to the girl. This pair was certainly an odd one. They'd been passed out in the street. No one seemed to know who they were or where they were from.

"Jinxy..." Naomi groaned the girl's name.

The man actually reached out to her! For a moment, Jinx wavered between Icy blue, bitehimscratchhimkillhim, and warm purple,! Grimacing at the tearing feeling in her head Jinx bared her rather impressively white and pointy teeth at the man before darting past him to cling to the wavering Nao. Every person at her back was one too many, but she couldn't yank the butterfly around. Nao would break, she wasn't used to the games. So Jinx was stuck in the open hospital room, surrounded by staff, and clinging to the woman's waist.

Naomi winced as Jinx gripped her by the waist. "Jinx. Shh... it's okay. It's just a hospital..." She felt queasy. Whatever they'd injected her with was disagreeing with her. "Need to lie down."

"We can esco-"

"No. I have to stay with Jinx." The head doctor gave the smaller girl a nervous glance. She'd shown some impressive teeth. He really didn't want to get a tetanus shot today.

"Fine. We'll let you rest here with her." He threw his hands up. He cast another wary glance at the smaller girl as he made his way to the door, followed by the others.

There was a soft knock as he was face to face with the nurse he'd sent to fill a prescription for him. "The Geodon, you asked for." Nao heard the magic words and looked.

"You'll need these." The doctor gave her a stern look. "Don't get caught without them again." He frowned as he left the room. Slowly the others left with him. It was just her and Jinx.

"You're safe." Naomi hugged Jinx to her.

Jinx reveled in Nao's warmth for a minute. The game hadn't started and Nao was still okay. She grinned up at the butterfly. "Nao's here now? You're not gonna leave Jinx right?" She asked, rapid fire questions falling from her tilting mind pieces to her lips which spoke them. "What's Geodon? Is it important?" Her Blue, blue self was leading Nao to the Gurney she'd hidden under before. The room still made all her parts nervous, but at least the whispering had stopped.

"I'll never leave you, Jinx." Naomi smiled lightly at the girl. How could she? She was as helpless and fragile as Naomi herself, which also meant she was just as dangerous. Her little sister could just as easily kill these doctors as she could. She sat on the gurney and looked at Jinx for a moment as the questions came. She sighed lightly. Why did her stomach have to feel this way now?

"Geodon is my medicine, it keeps me from bringing scary monsters to life." Naomi's grin was slightly wicked for a moment. "But I don't always take it." She winked. She hated her medicine, it made her feel strange. Like she wasn't her anymore.

"Now that we're together, we're safe. How did we get here, Jinxy? I thought for sure we were goners so I just sort of... let myself drift away." She frowned slightly, puzzled as to how they could be in a hospital. Had someone used Phoenix Down on them?

"You take that stuff willingly?" Jinx asked with something that could almost be horror. Medicine was the bane of all players. It burned and made you think in ways the brain wasn't meant to. Shuddering at memories of Before, Jinx curled against her Butterfly's side and hummed a few notes. "I dunno how we got here. I don't like it though. Jinx doesn't like it at all! My….her head hurts. Maybe…..maybe it's like what Enx said happens in Iv-…Ivi-…Ivialence? Hauuu~" She ripped furiously at the single long lock of hair trailing down her left side. She'd forgotten a word! One of Enx's important words! Swallowing thickly, she pushed the hurt and disgust to the other part of her head, the green part, and focused on her Nao's question. "It could be a temporal shift in the dimensional layers as cited in the Spacial displacement theory…" Her blue-cold mind rattled off while she worried the sleeve of her coat with cracked fingernails.

Naomi frowned lightly as she listened to Jinx. She let her finish before stroking her hair. "Ivalice, Jinx." She kissed the top of the girl's head gently. "You know some interesting stuff, kid." She teased gently. "Are you going to be okay?" She asked, peering into the eyes of her little sister with worry.

Thinking for a moment, Naomi turned and began to run Jinx's shoulders as she peered about the room. "I've never seen this hospital before. It's one from Earth... Ivalice's hospitals aren't anything like this." She said softly, frowning. "Could it really be that we fell back through to this world from Ivalice?" She tilted her head. So her friends hadn't used Phoenix Down on them? But where was the Humbaba? Wouldn't it have fallen through too?

Naomi's eyes widened as she had a wacky idea. "Jinx... could we be...dead?"


	2. Second Break: Through the Looking Glass

Jinx melted inside, the feeling purple-pink and sparkly as her tense muscles relaxed under Naomi's hands. "I don't like this place. It's too much like the before. I'll be okay for a while longer though." She mused aloud, watching the woman's eyes shift and take in the room. Jinx hummed her agreement loudly, Nao was completely right. Ivalice, the green part turned less sour, definitely didn't have needle filled torture chambers like this place did. She stiffened at the question as images, memories, of the giant teeth and claws rushed back. "We are. I remember, ripping and chewing and bones snapping. It'll be hard to put us back together again…" She giggled slightly, amused despite the irritating situation. "Like Humpty-Dumpty! With glue and plaster instead of horses and men though." She winced suddenly as the walls throbbed with wrongness again. Holding herself still, she swept the room with green lit eyes and shuddered.

"I don't even want to think about it." Naomi shuddered. The thing about this place was that the walls were colored, not stark white. This was a comfort to Naomi, but it also made her wary. If they'd been white, she'd have been on edge, but at the same time she would have known how to handle it. Here, she didn't know what to expect. "This place creeps me out Jinx. What say you we go and find a way out, hm?" She looked at the younger girl lovingly. She was glad to at least be here with her.

"Sure Nao!" She chirped instantly. As distracting as the fact that it was a hospital was, the thought of exploring the outside, away from the needles and doctors and players, was too tempting to resist. Jinx plastered on a huge grin and hopped off the gurney, bouncing in place, when a thought hit her. "Butterfly, can you leave with the lead they put in you?" She asked, a hint of something like worry coloring her voice. If Nao couldn't move she'd have to find a safe place for them to hind, Jinx decided suddenly. Nao was more important than the tantalizing newness of outside.

Naomi nodded slowly. "It just made me sleepy is all. I'm used to fighting it. Sooner or later it'll wear off and I won't feel like falling over." She laughed lightly and stood up. She'd fought sedatives before, she'd do it again. Especially for Jinx, who didn't need to be alone in this situation. She couldn't let the little one be frightened. Wavering for a second, she looked around. "Alright, see anything we could possibly use?" Here was her escape mentality. So many times, she'd left asylums behind, finding ways out on her own. It'd be different with a companion.

Jinx flashed her butterfly a brilliant smile. The woman was almost like a Player sometimes. Stretching the cramped feeling out of her bones, torn up coat and shirt lifting all the way to her stomach, she twisted around suddenly and made for the little cupboard at the side of the room. The thing was locked, but that wasn't much of a problem to her. She'd gotten through DNA locked panels before, what's a little thing like a tumbler lock? Extending one of her sharp claws, she gently inserted it in the Keyhole and pushed in while yanking up simultaneously. The cupboard obediently clicked open and Jinx happily dove in to dig through the treasures inside. Squealing with delight, she stripped out of her coat and shirt to put on the pretty blue nightgown thing she'd found inside. Spinning around in a graceless pirouette she danced over to stand in front of Nao. "Lookie lookie! I found a new shirt! What do you think butterfly?"

Naomi covered her mouth and giggled. "It's perfect, Jinxy." She grinned lightly. How was she ever going to explain that one to the rest? Ah well, she'd find out later. Shuffling through the drawers and shelves in the room, she stuffed some bandages in her pockets along with some antiseptic cream. You never knew when you'd need one. She also grabbed a flashlight that she found in a drawer. If it was in there, it meant that this place must be prone to power outs. She'd keep it for good measure. "See anything else, Jinxy?"

She'd gone back to digging through her newly claimed treasure trove. A slight blush of pleasure dusting her nose. Nao had liked the new shirt…maybe a new coat would make it even better. Determined to find one now, she lifted the lid on a cardboard box on the bottom shelf. Inside was a small white kit with a large red plus sign and what looked like a hiking radio. The kind you could hang off a backpack or belt. "Ooo music for the Jinxy?" She giggled and picked up the radio and box, the rest of the cupboard's contents having been deemed useless. "Look-it Nao! I found a radio! …..and a box." Looking between the two she considered carefully and handed the box to Nao. "You can have the box. It has a red plus on it, so it's got to be good for something, right?"

Naomi took the box and beamed. "You're brilliant, Jinxy!" Naomi kissed Jinx's head. They needed a bag now, it'd be easier to carry the first aid kit and her pockets wouldn't look so odd. She frowned lightly and looked in the closet. There were a few articles of clothing, but nothing special, at least, not to her. She tilted her head and looked through them. Ah, she lied. There, between a couple of coats, was a backpack. It was small, obviously a child's, judging by the bright red canvas and the size, but it would work. She took it out and packet the flashlight, the first aid kit, and the things in her pockets. "There we go. See anything else you like, Jinxy?" The older girl asked gently. She pat Jinx's head as she sat back down on the gurney.

Jinx was preening. Apparently the box had been something good after all. She coo-ed over the little red backpack too, red being a very very good color in her eyes. Then it caught her attention. She stared at it the whole time Nao was looking through the closet, lower lip being chewed away to nothing while she longed for it. Nao's question caused, for this reason, a hyper response of the traumatizing kind. Jinx flung herself into the closet with a shout of happiness and tackled the coat off the hanger, petting it lovingly after she slipped into it. "Naomi! Look! It's prefect! Can I? I can can't I? It's perfect Nao. Butterfly~" Jinx continued on, blabbering in her excitement. The coat of bliss, as it was now dubbed, was a long, three quarter coat made of soft black faux leather that looked cracked with age. Jinx was utterly in love with it.

Naomi grinned and nodded. "Yeah, it's not as though anyone's going to come for it. Alright. Let's get going." She peered out of the doorway, looking in both directions. "Coast is clear, let's head out and find our way out." With Jinx in tow, Naomi headed down the corridor. She stayed close to the doors, knowing that at any moment they could be caught and put back in a room, or worse, separated. She kept silent, running a hand along the wall. To her dismay, she could hear voices coming toward them. In a split second, she pulled Jinx into the ladies' bathroom. Naomi put her finger to her lips and gestured at Jinx to be very quiet. She cracked the door and watched as the nurses came down the hall.

Jinx squirmed in her new coat. She didn't much like being quiet. It was up there on The List along with old men and syringes. Sighing as Nao concentrated on the door and the Nurse's clack-clacking heels, 'What kind of nurse wears heels?', she spun around and around under the lights. Noticing a glint behind her, Jinx quickly made like a chocobo and went after the shiny. Which turned out to be a mirror. A big mirror. "Grandpa mirror." She giggled, quietly so as not to disturb Nao's listening, and leaned over the sinks to look closer at the mirror. The room behind her, the normal bathroom standard for a hospital, 'hellhole', was big, tiled, and whitish beige. Jinx waved at her reflection happily and showed off her new coat for a few minutes before turning back to try to convince Nao that the Nurse was probably gone by now. Then something shifted. She felt it, and it turned her Icy blue-streaked-with-red-danger so fast that her head screamed with painful throbbing. Her reflection stared back at her, narrow eyed and almost hissing, 'am I hissing?' as the walls in the mirror cracked. The sinks, half invisible under the rim of the mirror, filling with bloody slime and grease and the dirt of months, years, and the whole room fell apart at the seams. Even her mirror self slowly decayed, skin slick and wet with blood and injuries ripped her form to pieces until Mirror-Jinx looked as she imagined she had when the Humbaba had gotten to her. Faintly trembling with adrenalin of the shock and rage kind, she wanted desperately to turn around and grab Nao and run for it. 'Away, away, away!' Then her mirror-self smirked and pressed a bloody hand to the glass. Jinx Shrieked.

Naomi was startled by Jinx's shriek. She spun around and looked at the other girl. "What's wrong? Why are you-" Naomi was cut short as she looked at herself in the mirror, hollow eyes watching her as she stepped toward the Jinxy. She kept watching the mirror as she pulled the girl to her. "Jinx... I don't like this..." She shuddered and sniffled as the mirror world Naomi watched them along with the mirror Jinx. "Let's go... Jinx." Naomi tugged the girl toward the bathroom door.

She was rooted to the spot and Nao was tugging at her and the girl, thing in the mirror smiled in an obscene, almost kind way. Jinx just kept shaking her head, the throbbing, itching pain getting worse and worse. Nao was behind her and the enemy, 'monster!' in front and she couldn't move because something held her in place. "N-na-nao…..'m scared." She choked out hoarsely as the Mirror started rippling out from where her mirror self was pressing against it. The not-Jinx smiled again, almost gently now, and did something impossible. She pushed through the mirror and, fast as anything and more, grabbed her other by the shirt and pulled her, and Nao who was holding onto her, through the mirror.


	3. Third Break: Darker than Black

Naomi had stopped tugging on Jinx and watched in horror as the alternate Jinx grabbed her little sister. Just as her instinct to fight kicked in, they were pulled through. It was as if she'd been plunged into ice water, but she wasn't wet. Shuddering, she looked about, what had happened? The mirror now showed the room they'd just come from, and there were no reflections. Turning about, she found that she and Jinx were alone. "But..." Naomi turned and went to the window-that-once-was-a-mirror and pressed on it, it was solid. "Jinxy... I'm scared too..." She turned an looked at her little sister. "Let's... go see if we can find a way back?"

Jinx lay shuddering on the floor. All her senses screaming as her mind tried to keep up. Going through the mirror had hurt! "W-way b-b-back. Ok-k-ay. Sure." She gasped out, stuttering, as she gathered herself up and stood, instantly latching onto Nao's arm for a quick comfort, before stepping away again and looking around the room. It looked exactly like the mirror room had before they got pulled in. Now she knew, too, why her red state of mind was so close under the blue ice. Everything in the room was a grimy, dirty reddish brown. Rust and blood, blood and gore. "Nao….We should be careful. I don't like this place…it makes my head hurt."

"Mine too, Jinxy. Gives me the creeps." She pulled the flashlight out of the backpack. This place was dark and dank, despite the faded light coming through the grimed over windows. She turned on the flashlight and looked at Jinx. "Want to carry the backpack?" She knew this might make the girl a little more happy, as it was red. "It might make you feel better." She grinned and held it out to her. She then turned and looked around the room. There was nothing here that could possibly be useful. "Well, shall we?" She looked at Jinx, then headed for the door. She wasn't going to stay in this creepy bathroom any longer.

Jinx trotted after her, red backpack bouncing on her back as she dogged Nao's steps out the door. The hallway wasn't any better than the bathroom. Here and there sections of wall sleuthing outward and spilling into the hallway. A gurney or two blocking their path here and there. And blood. So much blood. Jinx would have hummed, completely pleased and comfortable, if it wasn't for that awful gnawing wrongness oozing from every inch of the place. Following her butterfly silently had apparently helped the woman concentrate though. They'd made it to the lobby, and boy what a celebrated thing that was. Jinx's gray/sliver mind eyed the window and sneered at the general room. Picking up a piece of paper from the table, Jinx peered at it before remembering. Enx was still teaching her to read the weird language….. She sighed and threw a glare at the paper before she turned to Nao with purple sparks in her mind. "I found something. It's got pictures, but…" She colored faintly, "I can't read it…."

"It's alright, Jinx. Let me see." Naomi took the piece of paper and looked it over. "It's a map! Jinxy, you're a goddess." Naomi hugged the girl. "I love you so much." She said excitedly. "Alright! Let's see..." The green eyed girl looked around for anything else, snatching a couple of bottles of water. She wasn't even going to ask why they were there on the shelf, she was just going to take them. "Ready?" The girl looked at her redheaded companion. "We've got a bit of traveling to do." She consulted the map, taking a marker from a partially rusted-through drawer and drawing a line where they would travel. "Let's get going." She held her hand out to Jinx and headed for the door. As they stepped out, Naomi noticed that the world was dark, yet there seemed to be an odd, ambient glow. It was industrial like, chain-link and metal plates. Blood and rust covered every possible surface. The hair on the back of Naomi's neck stood on end. "Stay close to me, Jinx." Naomi whispered. This was dangerous. This was like the worst of the asylums she'd seen. She walked forward until she saw something walking slowly towards them. "Is that a... dog?"

"DOGGY!" Jinx squealed happily and took off like a rocket towards the creature, fully intending to love it, pet it, and name it fluffy. Glomping the strange thing, Jinx spent a good five minutes happily nuzzling and petting the thing, until her bright, almost neon-pink, mind relaxed enough for the rest of the colors to mix in. At that point she realized that one half of the dog's head was on the left side, licking her face. The other side though, she stiffened suddenly. The other side, 'half?' of the dog's head was bending to the right, lapping at her hand. Swallowing, Jinx rose slowly with a calm that would have made Enx so proud of her and, giving the…dog one last pat, she calmly turned her back on it and slowly walked away. Apparently the lack of light kept the thing calm, or it was as surprised to be glomped like that, as she was that a dog was even in this weird place. Either way, Jinx was a bare five steps away before the growling started. She made it another three before the thing barked and gave chase, sending Jinx running at top speed away from the thing. She was going so fast, heart pounding like mad, that she'd already passed Nao before even realizing it. "RUNAWAY!" She screamed, hoping the other woman would take the hint when she saw the dog.

Naomi was slowly making her way toward Jinx and the dog when Jinx came running back. With one look from Jinx to the "dog" she shrieked and ran after Jinx. "Get back in the hospital!" Naomi yelled after her as she ran. Dear gods, what was that thing? She'd never, ever seen something like that ALIVE. "Go go go!" She yelled as she pushed Jinx in the door of the hospital. She slammed the door shut in behind them, and just in time, too. As soon as she leaned back against it she felt the slam of it running into the door. She pulled the bolt closed on the door and backed away. "There's no way I'm going back out that way. Let's find a floor plan of this place." Naomi said as she kept her eyes on the door. The dog continued to scratch and rattle it viciously. She shuddered. Definitely not going back out that way.

She leaned back against the door shuddering. Oh gods, that was just….."Sick. Ew. Cute, but sick." Jinx shuddered again. She was just about to emphasize on how disturbing that all was when she heard a faint staticky sound from the backpack. Frowning, she reached back to the small red beauty and retrieved the radio, it's loud staticky screech sounding like waves. Confused she turned it off with a flick…and snarled as the sound continued. Then a low, familiar, mournful sound broken in staccato beats came from in front of her somewhere. It was like someone was suffocating while having their skin burned away. Very familiar. Swallowing, Jinx looked up and almost gave in to the urge to cry. "Fuck. Those poor women"

Naomi turned around, her flashlight revealing nurses... or, what seemed to have been nurses. "Wh-what... what happened to them?" Naomi's eyes widened as she backed away. As she looked at them, she realized that in their hands... they had weapons. "Jinx... we need to... ah... run away." She gestured frantically to one nurse with a knife in her hand. "We need to get away fast." The nurses walked toward them at a slow, but determined pace. "Or I have a feeling they're going to take their pain out on us."

"Who would do something like that? I-I thought things were different away from that place!" She gasped out. Just seeing the women left her in breathless agony. This one had the whole skin of her face warped and blackened, the other was slashed to badly it was hard to even think of her as human. On and on, her eyes took in each pain, each private hell. Until all her colors quavered and shuddered. The Nurses were so close now. Close enough for her to feel the residual heat from the burned ones. Then a slashed up nurse let out a loud, rattling moan. Leaning back suddenly and stabbing Jinx in the shoulder, almost falling over in doing so. Then, all the colors faded and Jinx stopped being Jinx. It was black now. Everything was black. The thing in It's arms shuddered and moaned, trying to strike it again. It just shoved her away and slid to the side, picking up a chair and casually bringing it down on one of the Nurses until the thing stopped moving. It reached down and broke her neck, just to make sure. Then, It turned it's cold, pale green eyes back on the others and saw everything. "Turn out the light."

Naomi was afraid. Not only was she afraid of these things, but... "J-Jinx?" She flicked off the flashlight as she was told. All movement in the room stopped. Naomi resisted the urge to whimper. Frozen in fear, Naomi retreated further into herself. What had happened to Jinx all of the sudden? She felt the little fire in her being suffocated by everything, but she fought. "Jinxy..." She whispered. "Where do we go now?" She moved toward the other girl. It was still her little sister standing there, right? The olive eyed girl looked her over. "Let me fix your shoulder..."

It adjusted to the dark quickly, moving towards the other. The important one. As soon as she was in reach It yanked her down a bit and hissed in her ear. "Quietly. This one saw. They react to sound and light. This one does not know where to go. You will follow it though, and refrain from touching them in any way. Now. Follow this one." It didn't have time, or sympathy. The important one was It's priority. Pushing her ahead of It's self, it guided her to a staircase and, when they found no way around them, killed the Nurse in their way with quick and cruelly efficient claws. "This one bids you enter here." It whispered a short eternity later, pulling Naomi into a small room that looked like could have been a lounge or rest station for personnel.

Naomi had held the flashlight tight in her hand. Being a girl that wasn't skinny (anymore), but full figured and of average bust size, she nearly hit some of the nurses that Jinx was able to slip right past. She held her breath all the way up the stairs and found it hard to relax until Jinx... or... who was supposedly Jinx, turned and told her to enter a room. Naomi had nearly jumped out of her skin. As soon as they were into the room, Naomi flicked on the flashlight again. She turned it on the other girl. "What is wrong with you?" She whispered fiercely. "Where's my Jinx? I want her back now."

It hesitated. The important one, 'Naomi' something whispered, had priority. And she had asked a question. That was as good as an order. "This one is not sure what you mean honored one. This one is as it was made to be." Satisfied that the order had been fulfilled, It browsed the room for dangers, flexing its claws at steady intervals and always keeping track of the other. A flash of metal caught its eye and it quickly used a flash of something other than its self to identify the object. A small refrigerator. Inside where various medicines. Nodding, it took out a bottle of alcohol and poured it into the filthy wound in its shoulder. It would not be useless. Not this time.

Naomi gazed at Jinx for a moment. What was happening to her precious little sister? Watching the other girl wander about the room, she gathered her thoughts. This Jinx was relapsing, at least, that's what Naomi thought. What had Liz and Sarah done when she'd relapsed so far like this. 'Think Nao, think think." She pressed her fingers to her temples in thought. Ah! That's right. It was about this time that Jinx had found the refrigerator and was pouring something onto her wound. Walking with purposeful footsteps, she gently plucked the backpack from the other girl and pulled out the first aid kid. With gentle hands, she steered the other girl to face her and peeled back her clothing. "It's deep, but you'll be okay if you keep it clean and covered. Here..." Naomi pulled out some of the alcohol wipes and cleaned around the area, before taking the liquid from her hand and rinsing the wound. "It doesn't sting, does it?" She asked in a soft, worried tone. She then went on to pull some gauze and bandage tape from the kit, placing a patch over it. "If it doesn't stop bleeding, tell me, and we'll put a new bandage on it." She cleaned up, and as she stood, kissed the girl's forehead. "Now let's find a way out of this mess, hm?"

It was utterly confused. It shouldn't be, but….the woman, 'Naomi', helped it. She spoke softly to it. She even deigned to kiss something like it! It curled its hand claw-like into the wound. The only other person to ever care had been….. It's eyes widened in horror. The name, it was gone! "No…"It, she, croaked. "No, it's gone!" It, she collapsed to it/her knees and moaned pitifully. The rescuer. The mother. Her name was gone! It/she sobbed harshly. "Her name's gone! It's gone! This one, I-I don't remember Mother's name!" She cried and stared up at the woman, the Priority, Naomi's face. "Nao butterfly. Help!"

Naomi's eyes widened. Oh how it pained her to see how distraught her little sister was. "Okay, shh, shh, it's okay Jinxy. Tell me what she looks like. Think, calm yourself down. Shh..." Naomi sat on her knees next to the girl and pulled her close, rocking her gently. "Tell me what you can remember, Jinxy. Think, be calm." The older woman stroked the girl's hair and tried to keep her poorly mended mind in a straight, working order. Blood and gore didn't faze her, but suffering in this small girl tore her apart. She held Jinx close, not minding her thrashing panic, not minding those wicked claws. She had to calm Jinx, had to make things right for her. This was her job now. "Talk to me Jinx, tell me who it is you can't remember. Tell me about Her."

She almost gutted Naomi on accident. The claws extending and retracting randomly in her distress and she thrashed against the restraining, warm hands. Being black meant being useful, but….The Name! "She's n-not really. S-she doesn't even k-kn-know that I, it, this one calls her that!" She sobbed, not caring that she was being loud. "S-She saved me though. This one, who lost, w-who survived. I-I was…I failed and Mother came to save me. She's from Iv…Ivial….hau~" She tore at the strands of hair for lack of anything to slaughter in her frustration. "S-she's an Arbi….taur? Something, and she's always fighting, like this one. Just like me…"

Naomi listened, holding on to her little sister. Jinx rambled, but the fragments worked their way around her head. Saved, Ivial... wait... The way she tore at her hair, that sound. She'd done it earlier when she couldn't remember Ivalice! Arbi-taur? Arbiter... saved... Ah-ha! "You mean Enxydys? You call Enxy mother when she's not around?" Naomi smiled lightly. "I think she'd blush from head to toe if she heard that, Jinxy." She laughed lightly. "Is that better? Is that right?"

She stiffened, though her hand still yanked at the lock of hair, as if to punish. "Enxydys? Yeah….. NAO! Thank you!" Jinx glomps the woman, all blacks firmly pressed away in favor of bright pinks and slivers of blue-green. "Mother, Enxydys. Yes, I'm alright now." She scratched embarrassed at her hair. Woe unto her if Mo-Enxydys ever found out. Shuffling, she quickly stood up and made herself busy packing her backpack with their supplies again. "You think she would? Hauu~ Nao wouldn't tell on me, would she?" The Pink danced carefully as she readied herself. She could help now. Hopefully her episode hadn't drawn enemies. Deep, hazy green eyes scanned the room with a hum.

Naomi giggled softly. "No, I won't tell a soul, Jinxy." She said softly as she stood. Now it was time to go find her way back home. She frowned lightly, she only hoped she could. It'd been so long since she'd called anywhere else home. She'd not wanted to leave, she hoped her friends were smart enough to save them. She stared down at her hands. Friends... She missed her friends. She whined low in her throat, but pulled it together for Jinx's sake. "Alright..." She made a sweep of the room. "Oh, hey..." She picked up a stapled packet of paper. "A floor plan." She smiled and held it up. "Might come in handy, no? Are you ready?"


	4. Fourth Break: Animal Crackers In My Soup

She smiled back and hefted the backpack. "Sure butterfly, sorry for earlier, I'll keep the monsters away this time." Jinx hummed with a light grin and followed the other woman out into the hallway. Thankfully this time there were no nurses or monsters around. Keeping her eyes open, she checked the lock on the door and marked it with one of her nails. "So, where are the scary boogies going that we shouldn't?"

Naomi tilted her head and looked at the floor plan. "Eh...well... There's a back way out this way, want to try it?" She headed down the corridor quietly. There wasn't much light coming from anywhere and she pulled out the flashlight again. "It's quiet..." She frowned lightly. Quiet meant there was something coming. What could possibly be coming? She held Jinx's hand and continued on. That's when she heard the shuffling. She stopped. "What's that?" It slowly got closer. Tip, drag, tip, drag. As it entered the flashlight beam, Nao's eyes got wider. It was fleshy, human, or maybe what once was human. Its back was bent all the way back, it's arms bound to its legs. Naomi took a step back. "What is that?" She asked, her voice raising in pitch. Fear consumed her. Its arms ended in wicked claws. For a moment it stopped, then suddenly it threw itself at them, claws ready to kill.

Jinx launched herself the moment she saw the thing appear in the light. Whatever it was, it had claws and body weight and smelled worse than Malboro breath ever had. Claws extended fully, she almost collapsed under the brutal heaviness of the thing, some of the gore covering its body splattered on her and burned like nothing had any right to, bringing the icy-blue even clearer into shape. Bending backwards was her only chance not to break a leg, and it gave her the advantage of seeing how it moved. "Nao! Move it! Do something!" She cried as the things leg/arm/body claws ripped along her stomach and arms, blood dripping heavily to the floor along with gore from the fiend.

Naomi looked at the thing with wide eyes. She did the first thing she could think of, pulling out a throwing knife, she stabbed the thing multiple times. Its attention turned toward her and it sprang into action. Naomi ducked and it hit the wall. "Jinx, get back and out of the way." Naomi said, looking at the other girl. It had pulled itself together and by the time she turned back around, it sprang again. This time it took her down. As claws grappled at her, leaving her cut up, Naomi retaliated with the knife. She stabbed it, over and over, forcing the blade into it. "DIE MOTHER FUCKER DIE!" She screamed at it as it pressed down on her. She had to escape, she felt trapped. She finally got the thing in its throat. With a hissing/gurgling sound it shrank away from her before falling over completely, dead. Naomi shoved the thing the rest of the way off and crawled back. "Dear... gods..." Naomi convulsed as though she may throw up.

Jinx shuddered at the stench of the thing even from her little corner. Nao was amazing, for that moment she shone, like a true Player. Scuttling over to the other woman, Jinx carefully went to the thing and stomped on it's neck, breaking it cleanly. "Just to make sure" She muttered to herself. Kneeling next to Nao, she carefully ran her hand up and down her back. The claws would have scratched her normally. It was a testament to how shaken up she was that Nao didn't even flinch. "It's okay, shh butterfly. Jinxy saw. You were strong and stronger and that thing's dead now. It doesn't hurt anymore. Shush nao –ni-na-o. Shush."

Naomi sniffled and sat up slowly, turning and hugging Jinx. Her eyes were wet and she shook. Now she knew they had to get home. "Okay... I'm okay... You're okay... We're fine..." She nodded slowly. "We have to get home, Jinxy. I don't know how... but we have to. I don't want to stay here anymore." She stood then. "We need more weapons. Things we can use in close range and long range." She wiped her eyes and looked around. "Anything you think can be used, pick it up." She nodded slowly. "We're going to make it out of here." Naomi started down the hall again. Here and there she'd stop in rooms. Along the way she found a master set of keys. That could come in handy. The corridors were long, but soon they found the last door. Suddenly... "There's a man going 'round takin' names..." Naomi's head snapped toward Jinx, who had the radio. "Jinx?"

Jinx twitched violently as the Radio started spouting a song loudly from behind her. Digging out the radio, she stared at it for a moment, not sure what to do. After all, they'd just traversed a Hospital, 'hellhole', full of monsters without any sound except for them and Jinx plus Nao. The radio crackled slightly again as the song continued. "When the man comes around~" Jinx shivered and blinked at Nao's slightly frightened face. "I-I don't think it's anything bad exactly…." She said, turning to put the radio back in the backpack when suddenly the door. The final door. Slammed open and bright darkness filtered through with laughing voices in the background as the song got louder and louder. "And the whirlwind, is in the thorn tree~" There in the doorway stood that horrible mirrored self again. It's awful kindness almost maddening. The Mirror Nao seemed to laugh at something and pointed behind Jinx, grabbing her Butterfly's arm and dragging her kicking and screaming through the bloody doorway. "NAO!" Jinx ran after her, making it to the door before something grabbed her from behind. The Anti-Jinx had grabbed her Coat and embraced her from behind, laughing into the girls shoulder as she put something in the coat pocket. "Why ….what are you?" She croaked, not really expecting an answer. The thing shrugged and shoved her through the door, in the background a Siren blared and the music played ever louder. "And I saw a pale horse, and upon it's back sat death. And all of hell followed after him…."

Naomi's eyes widened as her mirror self grabbed her. She struggled and screamed. She wouldn't go down without a fight, not against this impostor. "JINX! HELP ME!" But she couldn't see Jinx anymore. She was blinded. Her eyes hurt so badly that her head was starting to hurt. She sat up. "Ooh..." She placed a hand to her head. "Ow...wait..." Naomi spasmed in shock. Where was she? What just happened? She was sitting in a hospital hallway, the fluorescent lights glaring at her. "J-J-Jinxy?" She asked in a small voice. How could she have-? Hadn't she just-? Naomi could feel her poor mind beginning to break. This was all too much for her. The only thing that told her it hadn't been a dream was the set of keys that she could feel digging into her thigh in her pocket. She rubbed her forehead. How could this possibly be happening to them?

Jinx moaned at the hard ground beneath her. It wasn't fair. Getting all pushy and shovey and touching without asking. She spent a good few minutes cursing mirrors and people in them before she heard Naomi's voice quavering nearby. "Nao! I'm coming, stay where you are!" She shouted back. One could only hope there weren't any monsters around. She really wasn't in the mood to fight the beasts, and she hurt in places that should only hurt after fighting with Jant. Rounding a corner, she immediately locked lips with a door. It apparently didn't like her all that much. Groaning in annoyance and the need for a desperate nap, Jinx pounded on the door. "NAO! If you're over there, open the door would you? Please? Pretty please? Nao-ne-na-o!"

Naomi tilted her head, hearing Jinx shouting. They'd been separated? Stupid mirror people... She stood up, wavering slightly. She hurt. Maybe there was aspirin in the first aid kit. She shuffled toward the door that sounded like Jinx and tugged at it. No such luck. Pulling out the key ring, she tried the keys. It was a good few before she found the correct one. The lock clicked open and the doors swung toward her, spilling a Jinxy forth. "Stupid mirror people..." She muttered as she leaned over and helped the Jinxy up. "Jinx, I hate this place... can we go home?" She sniffled lightly. She wanted to go home. She wanted to see Jant and Nina, even Enxy, even if Enxy did scare her sometimes.

"Nao~! Ah, I wish we were home now. Stupid place with stupid stuff and brain hurting whispers." Jinx wrapped an arm around the older woman's waist and tugged at her till they found corner where creepy crawly monsters couldn't find them. The Hellhole which lost the right to the title Hospital was so on her list of places to burn and gut. She quickly shed the backpack, which was now almost as ragged and frayed as the two of them, and held it out to the Butterfly with a worried expression. "Don't cry Nao. If you cry, I'll cry and both of us will probably end up snotting and end up generally icky and we're girls, so we shouldn't like being icky….right?"

Naomi was so taken by Jinx's sudden cuteness outburst that she giggled, actually giggled like a little girl. She hugged Jinx tight. "You're right. If we cry we'll become icky." Naomi pet Jinx's head a moment before rifling through the backpack. She took out a small packet of aspirin. "Do you need some?" She held it up to Jinx. "I promise you this isn't the bad stuff that they would give you. It makes the hurts go away for a little while."

Jinx ducked away from the out-held packet. It didn't look like much, but medicine….even healing magic. It made her skin burn and her head tear itself apart. "No Nao. Thanks though butterfly. Nao-ne-na-o. Do you need that other stuff? The stuff that keeps the monsters away?" She looked around suddenly, scanning the place for any of the disgusting sights they'd seen up to that point. "Will the monsters stay away if you take it?" She asked with wide eyes. "You didn't take it before and the monsters came. My butterfly wouldn't do it on purpose, right?"

"Those are not my monsters, Jinxy love. I don't know whose they are, but the ones I summon are a lot less stabby. When I take my medicine... the monsters in my head don't become real... but... Those were not from my head, Jinxy." Naomi worried her bottom lip. And that's what scared her the most. Her monsters she could handle. Those monsters... were different.

Jinx brightened immediately. Nao's monsters weren't the wrong ones! The tight feeling in her chest eased a little and she went with the feeling, humming a tune as she snagged a water bottle and took a long drink before offering it to her Nao. "I believe you butterfly. It's good like this. Now I won't have to hold back because it might hurt you." She giggles softly to herself and hummed a tune she remembered from Before. The same kind of tune she always hummed around Jant. "Now I can kill them all. Hau~!"

Naomi just grinned and shook her head. Jinx was the only one she really understood, and who understood her. Everyone with magick always offered to fix her, but she declined. What if she wasn't her anymore? What if she lost who she was? She had to stay Naomi, no matter what. If that meant having to control monsters from her head, then that was what she'd do. She was grateful to have Jinxy around. Jinxy knew that her monsters were a part of her. "Yes, and spill all their pretty red." Naomi smiled. She hugged her Jinxy. "Why don't we leave this place? It's not fun here." She frowned lightly.

Jinx giggled as she stood up and stretched all the way backwards, doing a back-bend while she was at it, and quickly bouncing on her feet. "Let's go, let's go! It's brighter here, and I smelled water earlier, when we met the doggy." She said. The doggy had distracted her from it, but she really had felt they'd been close to some kind of water. She was also extremely weary of going into the city, if they found one. Cities meant people. And people were never good. Not unless her people were there too. They'd sneaked out into a hallway and made their way stealthily towards the lobby again. Jinx's reason? "Maybe the doggy's gone? I can give it some of the jerky we found earlier instead of Jinxy too."

"Sounds like a plan. Oh, and... Jinxy... We've got to find you some suitable pants while we're out." She hugged the girl to her side as they sneaked about. There was an odd silence to the hospital now. On the alert, Naomi stuck to Jinx like glue. "Water water... should we go swimming?" Naomi grinned and winked, trying to make light of the oppressive feeling that surrounded them. A few more yards and they stood at the lobby exit. The room was strangely vacant and Naomi worried something new was wrong. "Ready?"

She dug through the backpack and emerged with the pack of Jerky, holding it out for Nao to take. "Ready butterfly. You should hold this in case. I have a bad feeling. The non-players are all gone." Jinx looked around the Lobby curiously. Normally there would be lots of non-players. It was a hospital after all. Most people didn't have her aversion to them. The heavy fog nearly choked her as she opened the door, leaving her coughing. The whole outside world was white-ish static now, the heavy, dense fog settling over the landscape before them like a suffocating blanket. Jinx dug out the radio on instinct and clipped it to Nao's jeans. "Just in case."

Naomi took the jerky one hand and held Jinx's in the other. "Alright." She looked down at her little sister with determination. "Let's go kick some butt..." Naomi looked around for a moment. Leaning against the side of the building were some metal pipes. Naomi shoved the jerky in her pocket and picked up one. They were good and heavy. "Weapon get." Naomi winked at Jinx, sounding like a video game.

Jinx giggled and extended the claws in her free hand slowly. Enx had told her about the 'video games' from the 'earth' place. She#d wanted to try them so bad. They sounded like fun. "Equipped?" She chirped as they followed the path they'd taken once before. It was the only clear one at any rate, and as they'd learned in the Hospital, the radio roared with static when the monsters were close by. Now that she knew that the monsters weren't part of Nao-butterfly she could properly play with them. The blue of her mind tinted red and glinted in her mind like a sharp dagger of ice as the radio played a wave like noise.

Naomi nodded. "Equipped and ready, one Steel Pipe of-" Naomi stopped as she listened to the radio. There was a soft sloshing noise like waves. She frowned. "The lake?" She whispered quietly, looking at Jinx for her opinion. She continued forward, fingers wrapped tight around the pipe. As she walked, there was a slight popping crackle that grew steadily louder. "Get ready Jinxy... I don't like the sound of that..." She pulled the Jerky from her pocket and opened the bag. "So if it's a dog we just.. dump the bag and run?"

"The whole bag? Nao-ne-na-o, what if we can't find anymore?" Jinx shivered at the though. She wasn't scared yet. People scared her worse than these monsters. The monsters were easy. They wanted to eat her and the butterfly. People, on the other hand, smiled and made nice while eating you alive. "Throw the meat to spare the flesh." She hummed with the static while it crackled and screamed as they approached the watery edge of their path.

"Hm, alright. Throw it a piece and run then." She didn't like these monsters. She didn't know how to deal with them like she did her own. "Ooh, Jinxy... over there..." Naomi pointed into the fog. Coming toward them at an alarming pace was a dog, but it wasn't quite like the one from earlier. This one was...deformed. Its head looked as though it were made of worms. Naomi shuddered at the hole in the front where its mouth was. It was... nasty to say the least. "Here Jinxy, you do it."

She snatched the jerky from Nao and tossed it at the thing, grabbing Nao and making a run for it even though her mind whimpered for something to tear and break. "This way butterfly~" Jinx glanced behind, seeing the worm-headed dog tear at the meat. Each little worm having a slit at the end which opened to reveal a whole couple of sets of sharp tiny teeth. 'not fighting that. Nu-uh' She told her scattered mind as they ran. The shore of the lake was all sand and shingled rock with a few spars plants growing at odd angles, slowing them to a trot. "Oh Come on!" She huffed as the radio teasingly screamed with static again.

There was a sharp shriek as something took to the air. Giant wings beat with all they had and took to the sky. "What was-" Naomi screamed and yanked Jinx down as the thing came swooping at them. "Holy shit!" Her eyes widened as she held the pipe at the ready. No way that thing wouldn't return. "Here he comes Jinx!" The pterodactyl-like creature came at them again, it's beak wickedly sharp with teeth. Its eyes glinted as it charged at them. Naomi took a swing.

"Nao!" Jinx was already moving as the steel pipe hit the wickedly dangerous looking bird just above the right wing joint, sending the creature careening and screeching in pain. The moment the thing was on the ground she'd jumped it. Kick to the head and claws ripping happily at its wings. The bird-like things' skin was much more tough that she'd thought though. The few rips she'd managed to tear were pitifully small. She stalled in confusion, staring at her claws, and the bird took advantage by snapping at her leg.

Naomi saw the bird go for her little sister and she hit the thing upside the head with a sickening crunch. Her olive eyes went glassy as she attacked. She saw red, and felt... alive. She beat at the thing. The small tears that Jinx had put in it had rendered its right side the rest of the way flightless. It couldn't take off anymore. Naomi got a sick sense of glee at that thought. "That's right, can't run can you? Can't make us into yummy snacks from down here, can you?" She asked as she beat the bird with the pipe. "And now. You. Die!" The girl cried as she bashed its skull with all her might.

Jinx rubbed at her red, redder, reddest shoulder and watched as her butterfly acted like a Player, a silly grin stretching her face in macabre ways. The leg that the Pterodactyl like birdie had snapped after wasn't hurt at all, not that it would've mattered to her. The radio shushed quietly. All traces of static gone now. The smashed birdie's head spilled a little fountain of blood onto the shingled rocks of the shore side and her Nao was kneeling by its side, not moving. Frowning, Jinx crawled over and gently traced a claw down her arm. "Nao-ne-na-o. That was pretty. You played well, but we have to get up now. There might be others that want to play and you don't look so good."

Naomi hugged Jinx tight, then got up. Her olive eyes seemed a little more hazy as she stood and looked out over the lake. "Where should we go?" She pulled out the map and looked at it, spreading it out in front of the both of them. "There's a church that way... I'm not big on churches. A mall that way, an amusement park..." She looked at Jinx. Where did the other girl think would be a good place to go? "Or there's a school over this way..."


	5. Fifth Break: Pain is Sweetest Love

Jinx stood with her butterfly, one hands twisted in the loops of the woman's jeans as she worried at her lip with sharp teeth. "Well…I haven't ever been to a School before…Is it dangerous there Nao-ne?" She asked softly with a singsong sort of voice. The hazy look in her butterfly's eyes worried her. She looked like a Player that had won too many times. Empty and broken. "Wind 'em up and watch 'em go, where they fall, all will know." She hummed quietly, keeping a keen ear on the Radio.

"No... at least... I don't think so..." Naomi shook her head. She could remember going to school when she was young. She'd enjoyed it, had friends even. The rest of her schooling had been done in asylums. She looked down at Jinx for a moment. "Do you want to go to school, Jinx? Like, when we go back home?" She frowned lightly. She wondered if they would ever get home. "We can always go see what the school's like here, I guess."

"School hurts Nao. Why would I want to go there?" She asked with a confused yellow mind before wrapping her arm completely around the butterfly's waist and hugging onto her. The Player like state in her Nao's actions and reactions worried Jinx more than monsters or home. Yes, she would desperately miss Mother, she mused as they turned onto a paved street leading away from the lake. She would miss the giant birds of her Home and the many fun things there. She would miss Jant too, he was one of the few who understood and loved blood as much as she did. If it meant being stuck as a player forever though, Jinx wasn't sure she would do it. "Nao-ne-na-o." She said quietly as the turned yet another street, following the map quivering in the Butterfly's hands. "Nao-ne, if I turn Black again, would you kill me? Would you make Jinx Red?"

"I don't know if I'd be able to, Jinx. I love you too much, little sister." She said softly, patting Jinx's head. Her heart hurt slightly at the thought of having to lose her Jinx. Why not just keep bringing her back from the Black side. "Besides... it's easier to bring you back than you think." She leaned over and kissed the top of the red head. She wandered on, her past playing in her head as she thought of school. It'd been the one time she'd had friends before she became broken. Broken Naomi hadn't had friends until she'd been rescued by Elizabeth and Sarah. Then they'd become family to her. But when she was broken... she hadn't even had her mother. Mother... that was why they needed to get back home. Jinxy needed to grow up, to have her mother, to be in a normal home. Er...as normal as you got around the Arbiters and Magistrates of Ivalice... "Hm... This way, right?" Naomi turned down a street as she folded up the map. They should have been coming up on it soon.

Jinx turned pink inside and outside. Little sister. She had a Mother, and now, a Big Sister. That firmed her resolve more than anything. She'd bring her butterfly, her precious Nao-ne-na-o back home and fix her, the way she'd fixed Jinx when she turned Black with horror and pain. "Nao-ne, I too lo- " She broke off suddenly, hissing as the radio screamed with static. She released her hold on Nao suddenly and unsheathed her claws, crouching and turning in a low circle to search for the enemy. The Monsters.

The haze in Naomi's eyes receded a bit. She knew what Jinx was going to say, and it made her happier than she could ever remember. A little sister who loved her back. As the radio screamed, she held the pipe at the ready. A skittering noise caught her ears and her eyes widened in remembrance of the lacquer clawed monster they'd fought in the hospital. As she watched, out of the fog came the monsters. No, not the bound, clawed ones. Bugs. Tons of black, nasty looking bugs.


	6. 6th Break: Madness? THIS IS SILENT HILL!

"We can't take all that! Run Jinx!" Naomi grabbed the girl's hand and tugged her.

"N-n-nao!" She shrieked, feeling as one of her claws ripped up the woman's arm when she grabbed her. The claws all instantly retracted as Jinx stumbled after her butterfly, but the damage was done. The horde, no Wave of black insects roared down the street after them, flooding every nook and crevice behind them like a deadly swell of water. Jinx could very well imagine what those sorts of bugs would eat and put on an extra burst of speed, slinging them down a corner. They both ran desperately now, puffing for breath as the wave drew ever closer. Jinx turned at the intersection that they'd seen on the map earlier as the path to the school, but instantly turned heel and dragged Nao right back onto the main road. The alleyways had been full to bursting with a wall of those damned bugs and even Jinx's enhanced legs were starting to get tired. "There Nao! Let's go there!" She shouted as soon as the huge white building on the hill came into view.

Naomi was starting to get tired, and her left leg was starting to cramp up. It'd been a while since she'd run so much. She'd taken up track when she'd gotten to go to high school for the last couple years, and she'd run well, as she'd liked to do it when she had the chance. Looking up at the hill, Naomi tried not to tell the girl no. It really was the best place to go. "Nnngh... Alright. Let's go." She held tight to Jinx, despite the pain in her arm. So she'd reacted without thinking about certain claws. It wouldn't be the first cut she'd gotten down her arm.

She cast a worried look at her butterfly as they hit the long paved road leading up the hill. When they hit the cement stairs Jinx nearly whined with exhausted pain. The concrete and mortar acting like sledge hammer blows from below that struck exactly where it would hurt in her feet. It was like running on daggers. Jinx could only imagine it was worse for her Nao. She'd been about to ask something, some inane question that could only be asked while running for your life, when one of the bugs got close enough to land on her back and scrabble up to sink it's 'teeth' into the stretch of skin next to her spine.

Naomi shrieked when she saw what was happening to Jinx. Without thinking, she reached out and grabbed the thing, ripping it from her back. "Get the fuck OFF HER!" She turned around and bat the nearest ones away with her pipe. She then threw her arm around Jinx and half-carried her up the stairs in a burst of angry adrenaline. When they reached the top, she practically ripped the door off of its hinges to get inside, shoving it shut. A couple of braver bugs managed to skitter inside. Naomi set to the task of killing them, pain coming back as the adrenaline started to recede.

Jinx was gasping in pain, the actions of her butterfly or that they were safe-ish now hadn't registered either. That one tiny bite had hurt more than the time the Doctor-Player had put that hook in her stomach and made the poor worm pull, pull, pull until the hook removed itself from her intestines by force. 'Don't think, don't think!' She shook the memories away into the bitter Green and sniffed at the dank air. "Thanks Nao butterfly. You seem to be saving me more often than not." She intoned hoarsely, and quietly as she stared at one of the dead bugs, poking at its remarkably human like under shell form with an extended claw.

Naomi shook her head. "It's my job, Jinx." She said softly. "Now... where are we?" This was not like any church she'd ever been in. It was dark here. She looked around and nearly jumped as she watched a woman come toward them. Where had she come from?

"You are in the house of God." The woman had a strangely calm voice for someone who made her instantly think of insanity.

"...What kind of god do you worship?" Naomi asked, distaste coloring her words.

"Do not speak against her! She is a terrible and mighty god who deals harshly with the unclean!"

Naomi took a step back and looked at Jinx. "Why do I get the feeling we should have kept going?"

She shook her head quickly. "They're still outside nao-ne-na-o. If we go outside now, we'll get eaten alive. That one bite hurt worse than anything I've ever felt before!" She said, as her Blue icy mind looked at the woman and categorized her as a Player. The weird woman certainly looked like a Player would. Pale blond her streaked silver by age, and a gaunt face malnourished by the burning fires of madness. The black dress hung strangely off of her emaciated frame. All in all, she reminded Jinx of herself, if the damage had never been corrected. "They've come to witness the beginning. The Rebirth of Paradise, despoiled by Mankind…" Jinx intoned softly, causing the woman to startle and stare at her strangely. "You know the ancient Texts?" The madness gleamed in the woman's eyes now, but it didn't matter. The Silver-Blue mind was already in place now. Jinx leaned casually against Nao butterfly's waist and smiled grimly, arms embracing her Big Sister's frame as if she were the Mother. "Do you like the Red too? Does God love the Red and Play with those who want to see more of it?" The Silver-Blue mind asked innocently, eyes reflecting the woman's madness casually as she pulled Nao nearer to the pews.

"A deity such as God has no time for your ignorant, mortal games." The woman's voice was haughty and grated on Naomi's nerves.

"Oh? Well, if she's so terrible, I'd think she'd have plenty of time to spill some blood." Naomi said with a raised eyebrow, the mocking evident in her words.

"Be quiet, you unclean imbecile! You should be thrown to the demons." The woman sneered at Naomi.

The green eyed girl felt the anger in her rise. "Just who do you think you are?" Naomi cried. "Maybe it is YOU who should be thrown to the demons!"

"Blasphemer! I am loved and protected by God! YOU are the one who shall BURN in the eternal fires!"

Jinx jerked back as if she'd been struck, the chocking stench of burned flesh clogging her airways as she shivered and gagged on it. The two women shouting each other down were safe, but everything else was burning suddenly. You could see it. Anyone could! The wood of the pews turning blackened and the paint peeling off in the heat of the flames. Hundreds of people burning, so many. Nurses, doctors, men, women, children, a little girl in a blue dress locked in a circular cage and the screams never stopped until the flames went ever higher. Then all turned Black, and it remembered what cause this. What made the world BURN. The words against Naomi. The threat clear in the madwoman's words. Naomi. BURN. The Butterfly would BURN. Then the world turned RED and it didn't matter that the woman was defenseless. She simply charged at the woman, slamming into her with all the considerable force and speed her enhanced body could give. Her claws spread wide, beautifully catching in the darkening shadows as she tore into the woman, ripping her open from shoulder to ribs. She'd just been about to go for the throat when the darkened shadows congealed into a singular mass that stank of Man and Fear and RAGE. A giant of a man, monster, who's appearance caused the madwoman to laugh recklessly, proclaiming him as proof that she was protected by god. The RED of Jinx's mind and body didn't find him impressive at all, even going so fall as to evaluate the giant triangular hat he wore as a mask as a hindrance. The only threat she saw was the gargantuan blade he held dragging behind him. Snarling Jinx, stabbed her claws into the woman's legs and launched herself at the new threat. The most dangerous thing in the building didn't even flinch as her claws gutter him. He, IT, didn't twitch either when she ripped a hole in it's torso. The Monster just grabbed her out of the air, easy as anything and held her aloft.

Naomi stood wide eyed as the woman's words sunk in and echoed in her ears. For a moment she could glimpse the world on fire that Jinx saw; the little girl in blue. She shuddered as her world seemed to pulse harshly. Blood. Sticky, sweet smelling, metallic blood spattered up to her lips as Jinx gutted the zealot. Her heart thundered in her chest. She would burn... She would burn... the woman wanted her to burn. Burn, burn, fire, pain, red, blood, hurt, pain. Naomi began to spiral downward into her madness. Green eyes darkened to near-black as she curled in on herself. Whispers emanated from all corners. Then... scraaaaape. A figure stepped out of the shadows. The man... the monster... It carried a large knife, slightly resembling a buster blade, and it scraped the ground as he materialized out of the shadows. The maddened, hysterical laughter of the wretched woman proclaiming this to be her savior filled her ears. A flash of red and suddenly Jinx was attacking the monster. Naomi rocked on her feet. "Kill the monster from the shadows..." Her voice was sing-song-like. "Blood to shed is all that matters..." More singing came from her lips. Was the monster here to play this bloody game too? This fighting game of survival? He wouldn't win. No, Naomi and Jinxy were heroes. This was their story. They would win, the good guys always won in her stories.

She snarled and screamed through the RED, ripping at the things arms and wanting it dead, dead, dead! Before it killed Nao. Before it BURNED them all. She shrieked in frustration as the thing simply shook her as if to say, 'hold still'. Then, as if all time had stopped for this moment The other hand dropped its giant butchers cleaver and reached underneath the front half of it's strange Pyramid-like helmet and mask. A tiny snick like sound echoed through the suddenly silent room as the long locked hinges creaked apart ever so slightly and he drew her closer so that her nose almost fit between the openings. A rotten, foul breath blew her bangs clear and suddenly she saw. And Saw. And SAW! And then the screaming started as the awful thing, the Rage and Hate and Stink of all things that ever were roared through that FACE and it wouldn't ever be better, and nothing helped. Not even the BLACK that came as a last resort, and the Woman was laughing. The Blue clad girl crying. And Jinxy BURNED.

Naomi watched as if transfixed for a moment. Her head tilted and she hummed lightly. Then Jinxy started to scream. Panic and fear flew through Naomi, piercing her. She began the decent further into her madness. The whispers grew to cries and shrieks. She began to shake. Then... "NO!" Naomi fell to her knees, hands over her ears. "You'll never save her. You'll never go home. You'll never stay alive." The mocking, taunting words, over and over, from all corners of the room. The mad woman laughed, Jinxy shrieked, and the beast roared, and Naomi gave in to the swirling darkness that overtook her.

"Yesss... call on ussss." The hissing voices called.

"Yes. Come. Kill them. Save us. The red girl is important. All others. Decimate." Naomi's voice was stone cold, her eyes hazed over, black as midnight. There was a rending sound in the air and the scent of brimstone filled the air. Naomi stood and raised her arms. Out from the shadows came a rattling, breathy sound and HER monsters came forward. Seven of them, looking blue-ish white as if they'd drowned. No eyes, only mouths with sharp teeth, fingers long and sharp. They didn't seem like much, and then they moved. They were swift, and their claws deadly. In one swift motion, the mad woman was beheaded. Naomi laughed in ghoulish glee at the sight of the head rolling away, blood leaving a trail. Bright red, sticky, sweet, metallic blood. HER monsters then converged upon where the brute had Jinxy. "LEAVE THE GIRL UNHARMED!" Naomi yelled as they began their assault of the man with the pyramid head. The screams in her head escalated as they attacked the monster, claws ripping.

The Pyramid Head dropped Jinx as he fought back, swinging his knife at them. However, he lacked speed where they had it. They were quick, and even if he did take a couple out, the remaining five were speedily taking him down. Claws dipped in and out of the beasts' flesh, leaving bloody holes in his body as though he were nothing more than paper. With a final roar, the monster retreated, and HER monsters followed after. "Don't leave him til he's finished." Naomi's icy words followed them.

The impact didn't even still her twisting, screaming mind for a moment. The Blue clad girl rocking there, her skin already peeling off and blackening even though she wasn't in the cage yet. The Black swirled in the madness of STINKROTHATE like water in an empty bathtub and soon washed away to be replaced by the RED of hate and need to fight. To protect. The Red self pulled her shaking form to its knees and stared around the inside of the church with wide, hollow eyes. Her bangs and hair swept back in disarray so that her eyes could be seen for the first time in a very long time. She hated the feeling. Trying to get up, she slipped in something red that wasn't a part of the Red and fell onto her side, the red, warm liquid splashing all over everything and her as the wide eyes stared up at her in glassy disbelief from the severed head. Not Nao. Good. Then the shivers began in earnest as Jinx shoved all the things she'd seen in the ….. somewhere, shoved them all down into the green until she could think without screaming. "Nao. Nao. Nao." She muttered and glanced around, finally finding the woman standing between two beautiful blueish white bodies. "Nao! Jinx can't forget to not-remember. "

Somewhere inside, Naomi cried in relief that Jinx was okay. But that Naomi was nearly lost, and so out of reach. The world convulsed and Naomi fell to her knees once more as the whispers started. They were all around her. "Make it stop. Make them stop!" Naomi began to rock back and forth.

"Waste of space. Monster. Murderer. Unclean. Burn. Die. Waste of space. Stupid. Ugly. Worthless. Garbage..." The whispers went on and on, all around her. She rocked back and forth, whispering to herself, telling them to stop it. Telling them it wasn't true. "Jinxy...tell them... tell them..." Naomi's eyes remained black, even as her guardians slipped into the shadows and left them alone. Naomi shook violently, and began to scream.

The scream startled her already shivering mind. The 'face' had nearly stolen Jinx. Would have if Nao's friends hadn't interfered. Jinx stumbled over the fading corpse of blueish white and wrapped her arms around her Butterfly's shaking form. Nao fought for a moment, but she wasn't strong. Not nearly strong enough. She wouldn't listen though, she couldn't hear like Jinx did. So She did what Enx used to do. "Brave Nao, sweet Nao. Butterfly saved the Jinx. She did. Never even though of running, my Nao. Never, ever. You stayed and fought and that makes you so, so strong." She whispered the quietly litany over and over.

The voices, oh the voices. They hurt her. They teased her. She shook her head violently and tried to push the one restricting her. She hadn't the strength to do so, she'd been weakened by the summoning. Her tired arms gave out and she cried and screamed. "Get away! Go away! Leave me alone! Leave me! Go! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!" She could see faces over Jinx's shoulder. Their eyes glowed in the dark. Their smirks and scoffs pierced her. She shook and cried and curled up tighter. "Make them stop. Make it stop. Not worthless. Not stupid. Not bad." Her head hurt, oh it hurt. The pain was sharp and throbbing in her temples. A high pitched ringing pierced through her ears as the voices grew louder. Naomi clapped her hands over her ears and struggled, continuing her screams until she couldn't hear a thing. Everything went silent in Naomi's head. She resumed rocking back and forth, sniffling, curled up tight. She wasn't okay. The silence was worse than the whispers.


	7. 7th Break: A Moment to Breathe

Jinx winced, but pushed the brilliant madness away. The green would be full and fuller after this. She'd have to spill a lot to get back. "Hauu~ My poor Naomi. You're just like me." She whispered sadly and held the curled up woman to her, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead in a mockery of what Enx and Nao did when she wasn't Jinx, and petted her fingers over the woman's shoulders. She tried to be comforting, thought she was sure the claws did more damage than good when she saw the red lines left after each pet, and continued her litany. Interrupting it every now and then with a glance around the place. The corpses had disappeared now, except for the madwoman. Even the horr-, her mind stuttered and quaked, whatever had been there before was gone now. She just wanted Nao to feel better so they could go home. "Let's go home Nao."

Naomi drifted in a world of quiet. The kiss to her forehead cutting through the numb that had taken her over. She remembered that feeling. But, this wasn't Lizzie. This wasn't even Misery. This was... red... Naomi slowly began to let the sounds back in. A soft voice. Home. Naomi's eyes lightened. "Jinxy... Jinxy my medicine." As she came back, the whisperings started again. They were quiet, just muffled sounds echoing in the shadows. "P-p-please Jinxy... my medicine." It was in the backpack with the smaller girl.

She blinked, completely surprised that it had actually worked. Her Nao had come back. Jinx let go of the butterfly and pulled off her backpack. She didn't much like the fact that Nao wanted the Medicine more than blood or her, but that didn't matter. The hurt was also thrown to the green. She dug quickly through the pack and pulled out a small bottle with pills inside. Grimacing, Jinx pried open the lid and handed it to Nao along with a health drink. "Here Nao. Haven't any water anymore."

"Thank you Jinxy." She said softly, taking the pills and chugging them down with the health drink. It didn't taste very good, but reading the bottle, it was better than anything else this world had to offer. "You should drink one too, Jinx. It will help." She said softly before pulling the girl to her and hugging her tight. She cried softly against the girl's shoulder, arms locked around her waist. "Don't ever, ever leave me Jinxy. Don't ever, ever hate me..." The girl sniffled.

Jinx stiffened slightly before awkwardly returning the hug and patting Nao's back. "Ah, No thanks. Nao-ne-na-o, you know I won't leave. I can't now." She said, as the green inside twitches and shook at being so trapped. The Blue calmly slid into place with bits of soft pink. "Nao's better now. She didn't leave either. And Jinx is glad, because Nao didn't Burn." A few minutes more and her new- torn up coat gave in the watery tears and her shoulder was wet. Wincing and twitching, she tried the kiss thing again before extracting herself from the other woman's arms and scuttling off to the corpse of the man one. Jinx dipped her claws in the blood and watched it's partially congealed mass drip of the blades in chunks. "Naomi saved Jinx from the black first, then the Burning. Jinx couldn't hate her even if Nao where to send her back to Before."

Naomi shook her head. "I couldn't do that to you." She said quietly. "What happened...after he grabbed you, Jinxy? I sorta... lost it." Naomi stood, the medicine had taken effect and she didn't feel like crying anymore, the voices were gone. The health drink had given her back her strength, and the cut in her arm seemed to be healing rapidly along with the cuts she'd gotten from fighting other monsters. "Jinxy... you should really drink one of those... look." Naomi raised an eyebrow at the half-healed cut. "Weird, right?"

She shrugged and sighed, walking back to the backpack and Nao to grab a health drink. "You always could. It's that you might, or might not." She sipped at the bottle and winced as the stuff pushed at her insides. 'Eeeeew' She though, pulling a face, but she drank it anyways. If only for later, in case any monsters came. The bugs had really creeped her out. Pausing, Jinx thought back a moment, the Green looming at the back of her Blue-Gray-Pink mind. "Nothing happened Nao. I was burning along with the girl in the blue dress. The Madwoman made it so, remember? There were the bugs, which Nao-ne saved me from too." She smiled briefly. "Then the Madwoman, then the Burning, and then the pretty friends of Nao's appeared and made the burning stop." The Green quivered and calmed, causing Jinx to let out a softly pleased sigh.

Naomi tilted her head and frowned. "They're not my f-" She paused for a moment, rethinking what the girl had said. "Wait... But... no? You... You don't, remember the guy with the triangle thing on his head? He grabbed you and... did something... and you started screaming and that was... why..." She tilted her head the other way. "You don't remember?" Olive green eyes darkened slightly and her frown deepened. "How can you not... remember?"

Jinx gave the woman a look, tossing the empty bottle at the headless corpse. The Green pulsed and throbbed at Nao's questions but Jinx knew better than to think, so it settled into sultry watchfulness soon enough. "I don't know what you're talking about. There wasn't any man there butterfly. Just the dead thing and the Blue-white not-friends." She said, giving the corpse a kick for good measure before stretching, the skin around her neck no longer so blue and bruised looking. She put the pills back into the backpack and pulled it on before snagging the radio from Nao and checking it to make sure it wasn't broken. That done, she held it out to her and smiled her more macabre smile.

Naomi looked confused for a moment, then blank. Maybe she'd been further past breaking than she realized. She sighed and stretched. "I'm getting sleepy. Want to go see if the apartments are as empty as the hospital was?" She asked as she made sure the radio was secure on her belt loop. She brushed a hand through her blood spattered hair. She hoped that, if they had the luck she prayed they did, she'd be able to take a shower and get it off of her. Blood was only nice when it was fresh.

"Sure Nao-ne-na-o!" She chirped, happy that things were settled and underway. The Green stretched lazily and curled feline-like under the red. As they'd already packed everything, Jinx just wandered to the door where the buggy bodies lay scattered about. Everything was still and quiet outside the door. Any signs of the bugs long gone. Jinx stretched happily, bouncing in place while waiting for her butterfly. "'d ya have the map Nao? Where do we go now, hm hm hmm?"

Naomi looked at the map. "Ehhh, that way, Jinxy." Naomi looked about cautiously. "Nothing to hurt us. Alright. Let's go." She smiled at Jinx and headed down the road again. The fog was still thick, the feeling still oppressive. "This place is menacing... I wonder why it's like this." She tilted her head as she brushed a hand over the radio to make sure it was still there. It was silent as the grave. She sighed. "I wonder..."

Jinx skipped ahead, completely happy again as the Green ate all the bad away. The sky was…..gray, the sun was…..sort of shining, and Nao was walking beside her. Nothing could go wrong! They wandered down many streets and alleys, once even running into a huge chasm in the road that seemingly had no end. Jinx had pondered just jumping over it, but Nao didn't seem to like the idea, and the apartments weren't that way anyways. Almost dying of boredom, Jinx rushed to her butterfly and clung to an arm, happily swinging their twined hands back and forth as they finally, Finally came to a stop in front of some apartment building that looked so normal it was almost creepy. "Eeeeew. Nao-ne, we're not going in there are we?"

"Do you have a better idea? We need sleep, and this place looks safe. You can't tell me you're not getting tired." She squeezed Jinx's hand gently once. "Besides, we ran out of water and we need to find more. This is a logical place to look. Unless you want to walk all the way down that way to find a gas station..." Naomi raised an eyebrow. She really was tired. They'd been running all day it seemed. First Jinx broke down, then her. It was time for a nap at least.

It made sense… Jinx peeked down the road for a moment. "No I don't want to go find a gas station." She sighed, obviously bemoaning human needs. She turned to look at the building again with icy blueness that didn't leave out any details before shrugging the backpack back up from where it had slipped during their search for the apartments. "Alright. The first safe room we come to." She said tersely. The door had opened under her boot easily enough, and they found a map of the apartments behind the front desk. Though Jinx still clung to her butterfly, she could feel the woman's tiredness.

Naomi nodded and followed Jinx into the building quietly. "Alright..." She pondered the map. "How about One-seventeen?" She asked as she looked down at her agitated companion. She wondered if this was anything like Naomi's grumpy moods and once she napped she'd be okay. "We can look around the apartment, perhaps find clothes to change into. I'll take a shower if I can. You might want to too." She picked at the drying blood that had splashed on her. "I don't know how much longer we'll be here..."

"Not too much longer Nao-ne-na-o." She muttered absently as she pulled the older woman towards the room she wanted. Jinx checked each hall they went down for anything even remotely resembling monsters, or for some reason checking for a shadowy mist, as they went up the back stairs instead of the elevator. She really didn't like the things. And it had smelled like old, bad blood. Like someone had left something alive trapped in there. The radio had skittered lightly while standing in front of it, so they'd quickly found the stairs to take instead.


	8. 8th Break: Rest for the Wicked

When they reached the door, Naomi tried opening it hesitantly. It opened easily, which surprised her. She cautiously moved inside, pipe at the ready. "He-hello?" She called out quietly. No one, and nothing, answered. Naomi nodded and waved Jinx inside. "It is safe." She said as she headed into the kitchenette. She turned the faucet and nodded as water came out. "Alright." She murmured as she walked over to the refrigerator. Upon opening it, she found health drinks, water, some food, and... "chocolate bars..." Naomi tilted her head. "Hey, you want one, Jinx?" She held up the chocolate bar for her to see.

"Ooo Chocolate? Yes please sweet Butterfly!" She cried happily, bouncing on her toes, taking the bar with all the awe and respect one would have for crown jewels or something.

Naomi smiled and ruffled Jinx's hair. She knew this kind of thing was wrong, but she hadn't seen anyone besides the evil madwoman since before the weird mirror-world trip. Taking a bite out of her own chocolate bar, she rummaged some more. "Hey, Jinxy. There's clothes in these two rooms. Just in case... You know, you could try a skirt or some pants." Naomi pulled out a sweater from one of the closets, as her white one was now blood stained. This one was black, but it'd have to do. She dug around in the closet and found a suitable pair of jeans. They were a wee bit loose, so she'd need a belt. At a quick glance around, she found one. "There. Alright. I'm going to shower, Jinx."

Jinx munched happily at her candy. The sticky, super sweet ambrosia like a lightning strike to her poor empty battery. She dug around in the desks and drawers and even in the DVDs, amusing herself with the titles on display. She'd just figured out the Stereo, put in a CD, and pressed play when Nao said something about a Skirt. Or Jeans. She shuddered, ignoring the song now playing on the stereo in favor of sending her butterfly a look of such wounded, teary eyed displeasure that her lip wibbled from the force of it….and was ignored. Jinx pouted silently. She perked up immediately at the word 'shower' though. "Shower? Did Nao say shower? Ooo Jinx will come too!" She hummed, following along, puppy-like, behind the older woman.

Naomi blushed bright red. "C-c-come too?" She stood stock still. "J-Jinxy that's... that's sweet but, uh... don't you want to watch a movie or something?" She tried to coax the girl into doing something else. If there was one thing she'd learned, you didn't tell Jinx no directly. "I-I mean..." Naomi didn't like the thought of showering with Jinx at all. She didn't like the idea of being naked around her, or anyone for that matter. Not even in her undershirt did she feel comfortable around people.

"Movie?" She giggled at her Butterfly's stuttering. "Nao-ne's silly. You're much more fun than any people who act out stuff." Jinx tilted her head slightly at Nao. "You don't want Jinx to see you naked?" She asked with an ever widening grin. She leaned against the wall outside the bathroom. "You saw me before. Did Jinx's body make Nao's blood run cold?"

Naomi blushed a scarlet red and became very flustered. "J-J-Jinx! I-I... Y-You... It's just... I-I'm not, I don't... th-think of you that way. Your my-my-my sister..." Naomi stuttered as she blushed. How in the world did this teen have the ability to get Naomi so flustered and... be seductive like that? She nibbled her bottom lip. "Enx would k-k-kill me."

Jinx nearly collapsed giggling. "N-nao! You really are silly! Enx bathes with me all the time! Mostly to make sure I don't slip under, 'cause I can't swim, but also cause…" Holds up her hand and slowly extends the claws with a soft, dreamy sort of smile."I get distracted by the way blood looks when diffused by water. All swirly-whirly and pinkish." She lets her claws retract and giggled again. "Na, Nao. Did you think I meant something else?"

Naomi stare at Jinxy in disbelief for a moment, then pointed toward the bathroom. "March." She shook her head, a slight grin on her face. This was why she loved the little brat. She was just too smart for her own good. "You... are going to get shampooed from head to toe."

She snaps of a Jaunty, yet still proper, salute and flees into the bathroom, giving it a once over with her eyes before carefully taking off her pretty, brave, lovely coat and folding it in three sections, followed by tossing her shirt into a corner. Moving quickly, she turned the hot water up all the way and hummed happily, swaying back and forth as steam puffed gently from the slowly warming water. "Shower, shower, getting a shower. Nao and me and the water makes three. Hee hee~"

Naomi sighed resignedly and reluctantly shed her bloody sweater. Luckily, it was thick enough that bra and undershirt were unscathed. She set them aside and tossed her sweater in the sink, letting hot water soak it. She looked at Jinx quietly as she bounced around the bathroom. The girl was small, scarred, and obviously malnourished. It broke Nao's heart to see her little love like that. No wonder she preferred the over-sized shirts. Naomi sighed and removed the rest of her clothing. At least Jinx was just as scarred as she was, if not more. There'd be no judgment from her.

Jinx rocked a few more times before turning on the cold water so the heat didn't scald her butterfly. She was used to it, but Nao might not like to be boiled. Satisfied, she turned in a small pirouette and stopped short, taking in her Naomi's body with resigned eyes. "Hauuu~ Nao-ne-na-o. You're too pretty for sweaters." She huffed, taking and tossing the other woman's clothes to the corner. With a small sigh, she pulled the butterfly close and smiled, eying the crisscross roads on pale skin. "We match more than I thought, you and Jinxy do. Peas in a pod." The smile twisted and grew bright again as she overwrote blue with a bright, neon-pink and hopped into the bathtub/shower, almost slipping on the bottom. With a twist she gestured at herself. "I'm still prettiest though!"

Naomi giggled and got into the shower, sighing in relief. "Yes, I do believe you are correct, Jinxy." Naomi looked about and picked up a wash rag. Soaking it, she lathered some soap on it. "Come here silly girl. Let's get you cleaned up." She looked at the other girl with loving eyes. Jinx was by far the more scarred of the two, her inner scars beating Nao's by a mile or three. That was what endeared her to the green eyed girl. She held the soapy rag out to Jinx. "D'you wanna do it or should I?" She put a hand on her hip as she teased the younger one.

"Wash? Sure, I'll wash Nao! Just as soon as I finish my hair." She said, snagging the soap and turning away from her butterfly to quickly scour and scrub all the blood and dirt from her hair. The front half of the bathtub ran red and brown for a full minute before it even came close to clear. Pleased with herself, she rearranged the sopping, stringy clumps of hair and hid her eyes, turning to blink goofily at Nao. "Done!" She gasped, grabbing at the washcloth. "Now it's your turn!"

"Wh-what? Wait! No! I meant you!" Naomi stuttered, wide eyed. She blushed once again. That was when she noticed Jinx's hair. "Why do you hate your eyes, Jinxy love?" She asked quietly, giving over the wash-cloth without thinking. She had often wondered why Jinx wore her hair the way she did. It was a lovely shade of red, much akin to Davinh, her mentor's daughter. The brilliant red was a beautiful color, but she wore it to cover her eyes. This made Naomi slightly sad, as she was sure Jinx had beautiful eyes. "Do you not like them?"

She passed in her vigorous scrubbing and frowned minutely. She'd been to obvious. "No Nao. I can't hate them anymore. They're the color I love in other people. My eyes…do things to people though. Scare them, make them bad, Burn them…" She shrugged and scrubbed a bit harder at the stab wound in her shoulder, making the already healed skin darken as the blood rushed into layers of cells and made a bruise. The Green grumbled quietly under blue clinical study as Jinx categorized what she could tell. "It's like…..holding a fully grown bomb, but making people think it's a candle. See?" She held the washcloth up and sighed as she realized the poor thing hadn't survived her scrubbing. Grumbling, Jinx shivered her way back to the counted across the bathroom, 'three whole steps!', and dashed back with a fresh washcloth. This time she did slip and fall in the tub, giggling all the while.

Naomi shook her head and grinned slightly as she picked Jinx up. "Silly girl." She smiled and plucked the wash cloth from her. She soaped it back up and began to scrub her own arms. It was heaven to get the blood off of them. She hummed softly as she cleaned up, then gently switch places with Jinx. She blushed as their bodies brushed against each other in the small space. "Eeew..." Naomi complained as she washed the blood out of her hair. "My poor hair." She muttered as she looked around for shampoo. She sighed when all there was was body wash. This was a guys bathroom, apparently. She picked up the bottle and used it anyway. "Better than nothing..."

Jinx almost purred at the brief warmness. It was heaven, to relax like this with part of her tiny family after such a horrible day. She hummed absently, aimlessly splashing at the water when a thought hit her, much like any other would. "Hey Nao. Let me~" She whined, draping herself against the butterfly's back to reach the bottle of soap, tugging on it with a giggle. "It's easier if I do it, right? You've got soooo much hair. Nao~ Nao~ Let Jinxy, 'kay?"

Naomi blushed and worried her bottom lip. She guessed it couldn't hurt. Even with her claws, Jinx was very mindful of them. "Alright..." She released the bottle and let the younger girl have her way. It was simpler, after all. She sat on her knees so that Jinx could reach. She was so much taller than the girl, nearly a full foot. The dark hair girl smiled lightly. She hadn't had someone wash her hair for her since she was very young. Her brother used to do it for her, always with the same, /"You've got a lot of hair, Naomi. How do you grow it so fast?"

She preened happily at getting her way and dumped a whole big blot of the soap into her hand. Only half of it went in Nao's hair though. The rest was carefully spread down along her neck and back, carefully rubbed in by gentle fingers. She massaged the soap into her butterfly's skin while humming the tune that was playing in the apartment still. Her fingers gently threading through long strands of black to rub them clean and glistening again. "Visions are lying and reasons just live to survive~ This time~." She sang softly, before drifting into her humming again, the soft hypnotic melody in the background having wrapped her up. Jinx carefully extracted her fingers from Nao's hair and leaned away thoughtfully. "Done nao-ne….thank you."

Naomi was thoroughly mush now, relaxed and sleepy. She turned and hugged Jinx. "Thanks, Jinxy." She smiled and stood, checking Jinx over. Once she was satisfied that the both of them were clean, she turned off the water and grabbed a couple of towels. "Here, Jinx. Let's dry up and put on some clothes, hm?" She smiled and kissed the younger girl's head before drying off. After taking the towel to her body, she dried her hair, rubbing the towel over it vigorously. She'd have to deal with crazy curlage, as she didn't have her flat iron with her. Luckily she had a hair tie with her. Once she was happy with the dryness of her hair, she turned and grabbed her jeans, slipping into them, then her bra and undershirt. She pondered just sleeping like that, and nodded to herself. It was just Jinxy. They'd just showered together. She'd be fine. "I'm going to take one last look around the apartment..."

Jinx scrubbed herself all over, keeping an ear on Nao's sounds. Not too far and not too near. Perfect. Rubbing the towel lazily through her too-short-to-put-effort-into hair, she eyed the shirt in the corner for a moment before another memory struck. Quickly, she grabbed her coat and shook it out before refolding it, tossing the towel into the same corner as the discarded shirt and padding after Nao as she announced she'd have a look around the apartment. "I'll come too Nao-ne. You said there were clothes in the bedroom, right?" She called softly, the content feeling demanding that not a word be spoken louder than a whisper.

Naomi nodded and gestured to the closet as she rummaged for that belt she saw. She pulled it out and put it on, the loose pants now staying on her hips when she walked. She then went looking through cabinets. She found nothing seriously personal, and this bothered her. No pictures, no handwritten notes, nothing. She frowned lightly. It was as if the owner had taken everything seriously personal and left. But when she looked in the dresser, she grinned. "Oh, jackpot."


	9. 9th Break: Sweet Dreams My Love

She pulled out a handgun and a nice, big box of ammo. "Jinxy... would it bother you if I used this?" She turned around and showed the girl the gun, keeping it pointed away from them both.

She went to paw through the closet at Nao's nod. Tossing this or that shirt out of the closet, sometimes slinging a pair of pants just for the fun of watching them fly, until finding a shimmery gray-purple shirt that felt like silk. She giggled at the shiny of it's reflected light before pulling it on, huffing at the tightness of the sleeves. It was a bit strange that all these clothes were still there, but the people who were here before could have been like jinx. Clothing didn't matter so much as speed and safety. She spun on heel at hearing Nao's question only to fall into the closet in panic at the flash of a silvery metal muzzle. The clothes made a small avalanche, which she navigated carefully, heart pounding at the sight of her precious butterfly with a gun or all things. Those things hurt, hurt, hurt! "N-now where'd you find that? It's shiny, and dangerous, and...doesn't smell like it should?" If it didn't smell like gunpowder then it hadn't been used right? "Sure i guess. For the crawlers, right?"

"Yeah, I don't want them biting you anymore..." She said quietly. Naomi took in Jinx's reaction. So she didn't like guns. She'd have to find a way to hold it where Jinx couldn't see it until she needed to use it. Leaving it across the room, she came to Jinx's side and looked for an over shirt. Finding a button up, she unbuttoned it and went to lay it over the gun. She'd figure out a way to make a makeshift holster for it later. She yawned. "Hmm... I'm ready to sleep, Jinxy... you?"

She nodded, skirting the covered gun and climbing over the bed, a monstrously big thing pressed against the wall on one side. "Sleepy time Nao-ne-na-o. After a shower like that, we should sleep." She chirped, though the words quivered a bit as the shirt shifted. Scowling at it, she hopped up and pulled it off, trading it for one of the tent-like white men's tees. "Better~" grinning, Jinx bounced back onto the bed and lay down, leaving space for nao between her and the wall. "Like this, okay?"

"That's just fine." Naomi smiled. She sighed and crawled into bed. "Hmm..." She groaned as she lay down. "Night Jinxy." Naomi grinned and reached out, petting the other girl's head for a moment. She smiled softly and closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep within a matter of minutes.

As Nao slept, she drifted into a dream. It was getting late. Enx, Liz, Nina, Dav, Sarah, Furte, Misery, Jant, and even Fealty looked exhausted as they carried bits of what they could find of Jinx and Naomi to one spot.

"Did you find it?"

"Yeah, it was over in those bushes." Enx held out what seemed to be a slightly dirty eye. Naomi felt sick watching the scene. She knew that was what was left of Jinx and herself. Shuddering, she watched as they continued the search. Their faces made her heart ache, the determination and the sorrow. Naomi wanted to cry, but she couldn't, she wasn't alive to cry.

Naomi resisted the scream that came to her lips as she was jolted awake by Jinx. She raised her head for a moment to see the girl headed for the bathroom. With a slight groan, she laid her head back down and rolled over. She must have had to use it, or perhaps she wanted her jacket. Naomi fell back to sleep.

She curled up and slipped peacefully into sleep, safe by her butterfly's side. The dream started very pleasantly too. Jinx was home. The valley where her Mother brought her on occasion to teach her everything and anything. The flowers where in full bloom and the breeze stirred the trees ever so slightly. She sighed contently. There was even a small bunny sitting there, not far away. Jinx giggled. A bunny here. That was odd. She didn't usually dream of bunnies. The little bunny hoped closer, and feeling strangely calm about it, Jinx reached out to take the small creature into her dangerous hands. Those hands had made Mother bleed so many times. Why would she even attempt to pick up a fragile creature like that with those hands?

The dream's strangely soothing presence eased her worries away. The bunny didn't hop closer though. It fled to a rabbit hole and stood. It stood on its hind paws and had Teef! She jerked back, but the bunny was just that. A small, quivering herbivore with white fluffy fur. Herbivores didn't have teeth like that did they? Shaken, just a bit, Jinx allowed the dream to lead her to the rabbit hole, which strangely didn't end in darkness but in a …dirty marble floor? Now thoroughly engrossed in the hole, she didn't even notice the Bunny smile with it's wickedly sharp, bloody, ripping Teef! And push her into the hole. The landing was surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, soft. It was a dream after all. And….she was back in the church. Jinx's eyes went flat and hollow as she stared around the dirty, dark church where things had burned, where she had Burned! Shuddering, she looked around.

There was the madwoman, over there not far from her was a strangely huge naked man wearing only a butchers apron. He had a huge cleaver too, and a Pyramid….for his…head? Her breaths came in gasps now as the Bunny hopped closer and smiled grimly with its giant red TEEF and stood up on it's hind legs, eyes comically large as it hitched its overalls and grinned even wider. Blood poured across the things face now, for it was a bunny no longer. Jinx shrieked and scuttled away, only to be caught by her neck as the bunny dragged her to where the man with the Pyramid head clutched someone by the neck. His helmet was open and oh gods the horrors she could feel waited just around the corner of that shielding metal. The woman in his hands though….it was supposed to be her. She knew it, the bunny knew it too. The bunny with TEEF! So why was it? "Nao! No, nonononono! NAOMI!" Why was it that she was screaming as she burned, burned, Burned! Jinx chocked on her air, gagging on what should have been a scream but only came up as bile.

Swallowing heavily, she scrambled for the bathroom, her shattered mind pried so wide open that she could see everything and felt so much she turned numb inside. Spitting bitter bile laced with blood into the dirty porcelain sink, she shudderingly took another deeper breath. Jinx turned the faucet on and let cool water run across her face for a moment before turning it off again. Scrubbing the water from her eyes seemed to help as she stood, because the dizziness was gone. "What a weird dream huh?" She asked the reflection in the mirror. The Pyramid Headed man nodded solemnly back, his helmet flapping open to reveal a dark, pulsating mist inside. Her other reflection giggled madly, holding a greenish mist that shimmered with memories and flashes of blue, pink, and purple in one hand. "Time to wake up now lovely~" She said in a singsong voice as she tossed the suddenly shrieking green vapor into the helmet where it met with the blacker than shadows mist and slowly started to disappear. Her hand stretched out to catch the poor screaming thing before she'd realized what she'd done, and then Jinx saw and Remembered all the things that green mist had once held back in her mind. Then she burned. The screams were soon drowned out by the piercing static hiss of the Radio.

Naomi woke to the hiss and crackle of the radio. She sat up and looked around wildly. "Jinx?" She hadn't come back from the bathroom? Was she cornered in there? Naomi vaulted from the bed. "Jinx?" There was nothing in the bathroom. Naomi looked around frantically. "Jinxy?" That was when she noticed the mirror, and her reflection laughing wickedly at her. "JINX!" Naomi beat against the mirror, but couldn't get through. She didn't try harder for fear of smashing it.


	10. 10th Break: Double Double Toil & Trouble

"Jinxy..." She leaned against the counter with a sob. For a moment, she felt like she was going to slip back into her despair, but no. She straightened and grabbed her boots. "I'm going to find you, Jinx." She said as she pulled them on and tied them. Grabbing Jinx's jacket, she shoved it into the bag and grabbed the rest of her things. Once she was ready, she headed for the door.

Walking down the hall, she set her face into a determined glare. She was going to get her little sister back now. A crash from a room caught her attention. "Jinx?" She ran around the corner and into a room where the door was wide open. On the floor was a man, books fallen on top of him.

"You're not Heather."

"Heather? Who the hell is Heather?"

"This is... unexpected. However... Was it you that killed Dahlia? That did everyone a favor. You should win a medal."

"Who are you?" Naomi asked warily. This didn't feel right. Somehow, she knew this person would be problematic.

Jinx lay gasping on the color and scratched at her face desperately, as if the pain there would make the agony in her bounding, burning mind any better. It hurt. Worse than anything she'd ever felt. Even worse than the time in the before, when she'd failed at the Master had thrown her in the cells. Oh she hated them. Jinx curled to her side, the memory of the guard grabbing her and the pain that followed. The blood, and the feeling of never being clean again. Bile forced its way up from her stomach as more memories rushed forward. As if a cork had been pulled. She curled into herself, not caring that the floor was dirtier now than even blood and gore and those men could make it. She thought, tentatively, about Nao and almost screamed as an eager flood of memories roared to the front of her mind. Something slithered and scratched at the ruined bathroom floor near her, but Jinx could barely even look, let alone act. The rush of clutter than littered her mind now was too distracting. Not even the floor, or the temperature, or the fact that this wasn't the peaceful bathroom from the world Nao was in registered to her. Then the claws bit into her hip, and the rush of blood and pain cleared her mind for one heavenly moment. Extending her claws, Jinx riped through the laquers' too soft to be hard skin easily and with a pleased smile. The splatter of brackish, black blood helped a little more, though the thing wasn't dead yet. It was like her in that way. Hard to down for long, and even harder to kill. "Yep. That's me~ a Jinx in wonderland. Hey little bendy-twister, know how I can get back?" She asked the thing with cheerful giggling, even as she snapped it's neck. "Guess not."

Naomi glared at the man as he stood and dusted himself off. "My name," he paused to push up his glasses, "is Vincent." He said as he looked at her. "And you...hm. You're Naomi. This is truly unexpected."

"How do you know who I am?" Naomi snapped, clenching her steel pipe.

"Oh I know everything."

"Well if you know everything, where's Jinx?" She snapped, her menacing demeanor back. She was angry now.

"Jinx is beyond my reach, you'll have to find her yourself. Have you tried the school?" He asked with a mocking look. Naomi wanted to punch him in his know-it-all face.

"If you know everything, you know I haven't."

"Then shouldn't you get going?"

Naomi glared at him some more. "Whatever." Naomi turned and ran off. THAT had been no help. Nao sighed. The school, eh? Was that where Jinx was? She hitched the backpack up and picked up the pace. Suddenly, she was facing a black mass. She just now realized the radio was going off. The black haired girl frowned as it seemed to turn slowly, revealing a Venetian Plague Doctor's mask.

"Just... what are you?" The girl held up the pipe she'd been using. She didn't figure that her gun would work on this... mist like creature. Taking a swing, the pipe went right through it. It came for her throat, and she fell backward as she tried to get away from it. It came for her, smog curling up her leg, leaving a mark in her jeans. "Oh no you don't." She said as she backed away again, getting up off the floor. She swung for his head this time, aiming at the mask. The creature recoiled with an odd garbled sound. Naomi shuddered and came for it. That was a mistake, it rust her, and Naomi fell in the narrow hallway once again. It went over her head. As it came back, it stared at her for a moment, then the mask came down. She shrunk back, not expecting the beak of the mask to actually pierce her shoulder as it did. She cried out in pain. As it pulled back, she smacked it a couple more times in the mask. It cracked. She wondered if this was doing any good. By the thing's warped cries, she could only hope. Once again, it reached for her and she jumped out of the way. By the weird way it'd left a scorch mark in her jeans, she didn't want to know what it'd do to her skin. She swung again, and this time, his mask broke. It gave off a shrill scream and suddenly dissipated.

Sitting back on her legs helped too, Jinx soon discovered. The less she though, the less it hurt. So Jinx sat and dug her claws in and out of the things flesh until the throbbing pain eased a bit and her head cluttered again. "Oh shally, my shilly oh dearest little bird~" She sang quietly with a sight. Thankfully, after not thinking anything studiously for a few minutes, the clutter faded to a migraine and she could stand without adding her stomach's contents to the mess on the ground. "Oh Jinxy's a very sick girl, that she is." She moaned softly, taking shuffling steps out of the bathroom and down the hall. Each step was something like a sledgehammer to the head, but she had to deal until she found Nao.

The stairways down were all blocked, and jinx almost ran in the opposite direction of the elevator, its wrongness even worse in the Other World. With no other place left, she slowly made her way upstairs, skirting around locked doors and strange shadows. The occasional lacquer came under her claws and helped relieve the ache in her head. After a while of poking around, Jinx found a door marked 302 that seemed almost alive. "Oho. A door. Does it talk, she wonders?" Jinx said softly as she studied the strange feeling wood. With a shrug, and a giggle, Jinx curled a fist and pounded on the door as hard as she could.

Naomi made it outside without too much trouble. Which way was the school then? Oh. Right. Across the lake. She sighed. According to her map there was a place to rent boats in Rosewater Park. She sighed again and stretched. "Alright..." She walked on her lonely way, avoiding areas where static started up. There were a few unavoidable scrapes, as the bird things could fly. Once or twice, she thought she saw the shadow of a child running around, but chalked it up to the mist. However, it did not deter her from reaching her destination. She looked at the entrance and frowned lightly. She'd have to navigate those pathways somehow.

The park was... lonely, if not seemingly safe. She didn't feel the presence of anything here. Just the fog and the concrete. Sighing, she could smell the lake, though distantly. "Oh... This way then." She backtracked a couple of steps and headed down a pathway that took her straight to the water. A few feet down was a small shack with a boat rental sign on it. She walked over it, not expecting anyone. Of course she was right. She poked around for keys, but didn't find any. "You mean I have to go manually? Fuck me..." She muttered as she grabbed a couple of oars and headed out to the lake.

Finding a boat, she began her row across the water. It was eerie, silent, not even the water making much noise. She shook in fear as she slowly made her way across the lake, only guided by the light from the lighthouse. "Twinkle, twinkle, little... bat... How I wonder what you're at..." Naomi tried to make herself feel better. This was going to be a long row.

There was a whimpered roar from the other side, which amused her greatly, so she kept pounding away. Laughing when a shadow skittered across the floor and the door was ripped open. "What do you think you are doing?" She rocked back on her unsteady feet and grinned up at the Blond haired man. Standing there in her messed up, once-white men's tee-shirt and nothing else, She was quite a sight to see. "Me? I think, it's just a theory, that I was knocking. Knocking at your chamber door." The man stared at her. "I see. Any particular reason? I'm exceedingly busy right now. I don't have the tim-" "Oh but mister! The monsters are real scary. " Jinx whimpered out in her best little girl voice. "I just hoped that you'd let me across your nice room there to the fire escape on the other side. Pretty, pretty please?"

Activating Puppy eyes that always worked on Mother. The man's face flickered, then saddened, then hardened. "I'm sorry bu-" "Thanks mister!" Jinx ducked under the man's arm and made a dash for the window, admiring the decor on her way. Just as she was about to slip out the window, the migraine hit again. Hissing, she sat on the window sill and scrubbed at her face again. "You can't just come in here like that! Mother will think you're being rude!" Instinctively, Jinx looked over her shoulder, sighing when there was only a carved up body where her Enx should be. "It's a really nice room mister 302. I'm apologizing to your Mother now. By leaving. Thanks for letting me in though. Ta-ta~!" With that she hopped out the window and onto the extremely rusted Other World fire escape….and immediately fell through the rusted metal towards the concrete waiting below.

It felt like she was moving nowhere. She could swear she was still in the middle of the lake, stuck in the fog. However, a great sense of relief washed over her as she finally saw some sort of shore through the fog, and finally, she made it to the other side. "Yes!" Naomi scrambled out of the boat and onto the shore. That felt so much better. She silently resolved never to have to use a row boat ever again.

"Now..." Naomi sighed as she headed up to the lighthouse and checked her map. Gods she had a lot of walking to do. She wondered if she could jack a car at some point. Sighing, she headed for the road, once there she took a right and headed onward. She'd have to turn once she hit Bachman. However... it was going to be a nice little stroll just to get up this bridge to Sandford. "Hoh... where's Jinxy when you need her?" She whined morosely. She wanted her little sister here desperately. "Stupid mirror world..."

Jinx was graceless. That's a fact. So when she crashed to the hard ground and rolled a few paces, it wasn't much of a surprise for either her or the split-faced dog staring at her incredulously. "Ooo Hello pretty doggy." She said with a groan as she slowly picked herself up, and pressed herself against the apartment building's brick wall. The dog stared at her with its ears half mast and its head tilted. "Aren't you a nice doggy? Did Jinxy interrupt your thinking? So sorry she is." Jinx said with a cheerful tone as she slowly inched along the wall…..only to come thigh-to-wormy-snout with another dog. "E-heheheh…." Both dogs slathered and growled, Jinx just gulped. "RUNAWAY!" She screamed as she ran in the general direction of away as fast as her legs could carry her.

Walking was becoming tiring already. She was so tired of this town. Home was the second most important thing on her mind as she came up on a bridge. This made her nervous. She didn't like bridges. "Darn..." She muttered as she looked at it. There really was no other way. Taking hold of her proverbial balls, she headed toward it. Then she saw it again, the shadow of a child. "Hello? Is someone there?" She called out, running forward. She could see it at the edge of the fog. "Hey! Stop!" She called, then it disappeared.

"What the...?" She stopped for a moment. She was now on the bridge. Shaking her head, she continued. "This town is so-" At that moment she was pushed. "Hey!" She spun around. There was no one there.

"This isn't funny! Who's there! Show yourself!" There were whispers at the edges of her hearing range. She felt something brush her left knee. Looking down, a shadow stood, staring up at her. There was nothing to cast that shadow, though. "What the hell?" She nearly jumped four feet in the air. She stared at it. "What are y-" It took a swing at her.

After much running around, a lot of it which involved circles and hopping fences only to run into lacquers, Jinx somehow made it to the lakeside port. The dogs where still chasing her though… "Why do you hate meeee?" She whined to them as the three ran down the road. The dogs barked in the way a puppy would at a chew toy. She'd about made it to the water when a tree sprang into her way, causing massive nosebleed and general pain to the much put upon girl. Hissing, and cussing harshly enough to cause the tree to regret its sudden mobility, she scrambled up the tree and dared the dogs to come up after her. Split-face whined pitifully, deprived its favorite snack of Jinxy a la carte. The worm-snouted dog just curled up at the base of the trunk, huffing. Jinx hissed at it and threw a branch for good measure. The man shaped thing sitting near her in the tree seemed to sympathize as it too send down a shower of bark, dirt, and bones while slipping a little.

The man wore a bright orange vest and seemed a boating type of man. Or at least, he seemed like he'd once been that type, being stuck in a tree changed ones hobbies. Something shiny glinted on his chest. Never able to resist shiny things, Jinx climbed over and pulled a ring of silver keys out of his shirt pocket. "Ooo what pretty keys you have. Mind if I borrow them?" The man didn't seem to disagree, so she slipped the ring of keys onto her finger and glanced down. Split-face had vanished, and Wormy seemed distracted by a passing mouse. Grinning, Jinx jumped down the other side of the tree….and realized where split-face had vanished too. "Smart doggy." She took off running again, 'running, running, why haven't I killed them yet? Oh yeah….doggies' and ended up running right off the pier and landing face first in a boat. "Wha- Water? HA! Water! Take that you-" A low growl from the other side of the boat made her groan and flex her claws. She really didn't like killing doggies.


	11. 11th Break: I've Seen Enough Hentai

"Whoa!" Naomi stumbled backward. What the hell was this thing. That almost felt substantial. "What the hell?" She held up her pipe and swung back. The shadow-kid-thing only advanced, unfazed by the pipe. She began to worry. "Oh dear gods what do I do?" She muttered as she looked about. There were at least a dozen of them converging on her. Behind her was the edge of the bridge. She whimpered. How did you combat shadows without light? Wait... She fumbled around with the backpack. The flashlight was in there. She dropped it suddenly. Why did she feel so tired, and was that blood dripping from her nose? Could those shadow kids be doing this to her? She struggled to find the flashlight.

"Get... away!" She turned it on, brandishing it at them. Echoing screams filled the fog as Naomi wavered. The shadows vanished, broken up by the light, and Naomi fell to the ground, out cold.

"Good doggy. You don't wanna come to this side of the boat." She assured the split faced dog as it whined in the front half of the motor-boat which, at these speeds, was completely lifted out of the water. The keys that she'd borrowed from the man in the tree had turned out to be for a boat. This boat, specifically. After finding herself in the boat with the dog, she decided to hell with appearances and hugged the Doggy again, startling the poor man-eating creature out of its wits and instincts. That taken care of, Jinx made good use of the keys and learned how to drive a motor-boat at night, across disgusting lake waters that had no right to call itself water, in the only way one can learn such things. By doing it oneself.

So they went, girl and mutant flesh-eating monster, back and forth across the lake in drunken examples of lines until Jinx's luck ran out and they hit the shores of the lake at top speed, skidding a good couple of yards inland and taking out a group of really strange, shadowy, creatures that ended up just pulling themselves back together again. "Well! We made it! Good job Doggy!" She called to the dog as she crawled out from under the crushed half of the boat. The dog whimpered and followed her with a look on both halves of its face as if to say, 'What? No really?'

Naomi groaned as she awoke. She thought she'd heard a crash, but looking around, she found nothing. Pulling the backpack to her, she took out a health drink and chugged it. She wondered if there was a limit to how many you should have in a day, but the packaging said nothing.

Feeling slightly more refreshed, she stood and looked about. No sign of those shadow things. She couldn't stomach the thought of seeing them again, so she kept walking. Once she was off the bridge, she continued up Bachman and took a left on Bradbury. She could feel it, she was almost there.

"You better be here, Jinx." She said as she headed down the path to the building. She shuddered as she drew closer to the entrance. She didn't like the cruel aura the place gave off. It was an elementary school and it felt like this.

Walking inside, she instantly recognized eerie whispers and faint laughter of children. Were those shadow beings back. "Jinxy?" She called quietly. "You here?"

After clambering up a hill not far from the crash site, Jinx saw that they'd made it quite a bit up the small inlet. In the other direction the town stood, silent and watchful. "Well fluffy, since you decided to not eat me, does that mean you'll be coming with me?" She asked the split-faced dog, fluffy, absently. It huffed/choked and whined, bringing a slight smile to her lips. "Nao's not gonna like that." She mused and limped off towards the town, Fluffy trailing along a short distance away. The foggy darkness of the Other World seemed so much thicker here than anywhere else. The shadows danced in place and the few monsters they'd encountered where easily finished off now that Jinx had something watching her back.

The shadows almost looked like children to her, now that she thought. And Jinx'd been trying to keep from thinking for so long. Their trail through the fog dampened countryside finally ended at the gates of a squat, menacing, building. A road curved one side and a sign proclaimed it to be Brandbury Rd. Likewise, a larger sign stood nearby and named the squat building Midwich Elementary School. "Look-it that Flufferdoodles. It's a school. Isn't that funny? That's where Nao and I wanted to go…" She lurched on her feet towards the building, her head pounding again, just from that little bit of thinking, and scratched absently at her cheek. Not noticing the way the split-faced dog was whining and growling until it suddenly stopped. A dull, sickening crack echoed and she felt a clammy hand sliding up her leg.


	12. 12th Break: The Awakening

It had been quiet for some time here in Silent Hill. She'd become sleepy, this restless spirit. Her small hands clenched and unclenched as memories came and went. This fragment of a soul that had once lived had become nothing more than a bad dream, a horrible memory. She disliked this, but this was her face. No one remembered her in Silent Hill anymore. Her name was dead on everyone's lips.

But this changed suddenly. Someone had come to Silent Hill, someone had woken Dahlia, and in turn it'd awoken the young girl. Her name was silent on everyone's tongues, yet heavy in the air. Alessa...

She watched as they made their tentative first steps. Silly young ones, not understanding the peril they were in in this world of illusions. Nothing was as it seemed. But they must know that, after all, they knew they were dead. They knew they weren't whole anymore. Ah, pour young ones. She ached for them. They didn't deserve the wrath of this place.

She continued to keep her eye on them as they ran for their lives, out of the frying pan and into the fire that was the church. St. Stella was, after all, run by the order. She felt sympathy for the girls as their madness caught up with them. She praised them when they murdered that crazy bitch who believed in a wicked, terrible demon of a god. She watched as they nursed one another back to health in the Blue Creek Apartments.

Now they were separated. Here was another major trial that Silent Hill would put them through. After all, it was determining whether or not they deserved to go back. That final judge between this place and where they'd come from, was this town with a soul of its own. This town, whose soul was made of hers, and others'. And now it was her turn to interfere.

Waking from the terrible sleep she'd been forced into, Alessa's eyes had been upon them this whole time. Her smile grew when she realized that this was where she'd come into play. This was where she'd help determine their fate, help judge those that only Silent Hill could judge. The question was, who would she appear to first? They were both at the school where she'd haunted most in this incarnation. Where she'd been brutally tormented in this incarnation. She hated, yet loved this place. But that was neither here, nor there. She had a duty to fulfill, and it was a hard choice to make. They were in mirrored worlds, and both in grave danger. She would just have to close her eyes and choose.


	13. 13th Break: Schoolhouse Rock

Jinx went cold. It wasn't the kind of cold that was usually felt outside. It was the kind of cold that came with memories of violent hands and cruel laughter. The clammy hand wasn't attached to any arm, that was the first thing she registered. In the back of her mind she mourned the sudden death of the split-faced dog, wishing it had just attacked her instead. Without the Green there, memories and feelings had no problem driving her into a guilty spiral of 'what if's and 'could have's. Resigned, Jinx unsheathed her claws and slashed out at the thing creeping behind her. It hissed and bubbled, reaching for her again with all the other claw fingered hands. Wide mouthed, gaping face stitched onto a clump of meat in the center of that swaying tangled horror.

She reared back, trying to get away, but the hands already had her legs. Were curling around her body now, the mouth coming ever closer. "Don't. Please?" She begged while struggling wildly. Then suddenly a hand reached lower and she went still, doll-like. The blue clad girl was there again. Standing by the corpse of the Split-Faced Dog and watching.

The girl in blue, Alessa was her name. This part of her soul, stuck in Silent Hill, was ready to do her part. A strange wind blew and the monster began to burn, like a wad of paper on top of hot coals, flaking and peeling away. The wind blew the pieces off into the distance, and it let go of the poor little girl. Now was not her time to die again.

Naomi shivered as she crept down the halls. One at a time, she peered into rooms. "Jiiinx... where are y-"

"Na... o... mi?" The static on the radio suddenly picked up. It wasn't Jinx's voice, though. Who was it? "Na...omi... come... he...re..." She looked around frantically. Whose voice was that? Why was it on the radio and not in the room? Where was it coming from? She began to panic. It could see her but she couldn't see it. Her stomach turned flip flops. This wasn't good. Not at all.

She dropped to the ground hissing at the slowly burning monster. That had been unexpected. Welcome, but not something the pale blue of her mind could comprehend. Not able to shove what had almost happened away like she used to with the Green, Jinx choked on what little saliva she could swallow and slowly wavered to her feet. "You didn't run. Thank you." She called to the girl. It was the same one she'd seen burning at the Church. Another ghost? Ignoring the strange girl, Jinx walked to the cooling body of the dog and petted the crushed and blood matted neck. "Good doggy. You're sure to get a great, big chew toy in the After World." She giggled lightly, imagining the split-faced dog among all the other dogs of the world before turning her attention to the girl. "You Burned. Jinxy saw."

Alessa was unfazed by the girl's observations. She just nodded once before moving past her, toward the school. She made a slight follow motion as she went ahead.

Naomi stood there shivering as her voice was whispered over and over on the radio. Then it stopped. Naomi's stomach lurched when she couldn't hear it anymore, and she looked around frantically. There was nothing there. "You're fine, Nao, you're fine. Just find Jinx." She whimpered and continued down the halls. "Jinx?" She came to the bathroom with a halt. The mirrors showed the other side, the real other side. How could she get through? She placed her hand on the glass. There was no reaction. Sighing, she made to turn away.

SLAM

Her reflection beat against the other side with a wicked cackle and ran off. Her reflection became hers again. Naomi pressed her hand to her heart as it slowly calmed down. Dear gods she wanted out of here. "Jinxy..."

She sighed, glancing at the dog sadly one last time, before standing and trotting after the girl obediently. It wasn't like she had much of a plan, and Nao was supposed to come here too. "If you're a monster, Jinx's gonna play with you!" She sang to the girl softly. A threat and warning, though it didn't help her feel any more safe as they entered the lobby of the school building. The grimy, decayed place felt even worse inside than it did outside. Jinx sneezed at a foul smell in the air and skipped along behind the girl, trailing after as she turned left in the hall outside the lobby. "Be safe now butterfly..."

The girl breezed down the hall like it was second nature. She could hear the girl babbling on behind her, but didn't stop. This is what she could do, what she would do, to help. She stopped in front of the bathroom, and went inside, letting herself disappear.

Jinx had followed the girl left again, till she floated in that weird, ghostly way, into the bathroom. The girls bathroom. "That's not nice." She admonished the air as shadowed scampered out of her sight, before slowly easing open the bathroom door and stepping inside. There was a woman standing there, ghastly familiar. "N-Nao!" She called out happily, startling when the woman slammed her hand against the mirror and cackled. As if her butterfly had fallen into Jinx's version of madness. Then the form disappeared, laughing cruelly still, and she was alone in the bathroom again. Not even the ghost girl or shadows where there. "Haauuu~" She ripped at a strand of hair while staring at the mirror, a type of despair threatening from inside. "Nao-ne-na-o…"

Nao stood at the mirror, waiting. It had to open back up. There had to be a moment she could get across. As she stood in the silence, she heard it.

"Nao-ne-na-o..." The ever familiar whine of Jinx.

"Jinxy? Jinx? Can you hear me?" She pushed on the mirror, trying to break through. "Jinxy?" She called for her friend rather loudly. The static on her radio started up again.

"Na...o...mi... please... come... Nao...mi..." Her panic mounted again.

"Jinxy! Jinxy!" She screamed and pounded on the mirror. The door of the bathroom slammed open.

Standing there, a twisted grin in place, was her brother. At least, a monster that looked like him. His eyes were hollow and blood ran down his face, oozing and near-black, from three holes in his forehead. "G-Grayson..." Naomi felt like she couldn't move. Her wide, lime eyes stared down the boy as he slowly moved into the room. His mouth didn't move, but she could hear him over the radio.

"Na...o...mi..."

She almost jumped out of her skin when the glass of the mirror suddenly shuddered and Nao's voice came through, like static from a radio. "Jin-…Jinx? Ca-….- hear me?" "Nao-ne?" She called as she rushed to the mirror, jumping up on the sinks to see better. Inside she saw her butterfly, backing away from a thing that looked like a boy. It felt bad just looking at him. The same kind of bad as the elevator back at the apartments. "Jinxy! Jinxy!" The screams startled her as Nao was pounding at the glass now, the boy coming closer. Cold sweat broke out as she hardened herself and lunged at the mirror, shrieking with surprise as she actually went through. The cold of between ripped at her arms and she could feel her breath condensing before it even left her. Then warm, fisted skin came in contact with her reaching hands and Jinx pulled with all her strength. They tumbled off of the bathroom sinks and onto the flood, Jinx panting with exertion, but still clinging to Nao. "Nao-ne-na-o." She clung to the woman.

Naomi was about to lose hope when Jinx, well, half of her, came through the mirror and grabbed her, pulling her through. "Jinxy!" Naomi held tight to the younger girl, sniffling miserably. She didn't want to let go of Jinx, but the radio became static filled once again as the monster that was her brother came through the mirror. Her eyes widened in terror. "Run!" She yelled, pulling Jinx to her feet.

She pulled the girl through the bathroom door and down the hall. There ahead of them was a girl in blue. She waved for them to follow, so Naomi did. The girl led them outside into a courtyard at the center of the school, and pointed to the clock tower. "Should we go, Jinxy?"

Jinx glanced behind them, the following wrongness creeping and making the hairs along her neck prickle. "Go!" She decided quickly, pulling at Nao as they rushed into the courtyard and to the clock tower. There the girl crouched by a small metal door, pointing at it with a faint smile. Jinx ripped at the metal latch, surprised by how heavy the thing is, and finally managed to pry the door open. Rust fell from the door and it stank of mold. The boy was peering at them through the glass window in the door to the courtyard now.

Naomi urged Jinx inside and closed the door behind them. It was cramped, and it smelled funny. But they were safe, if only for the moment. Somehow it blocked out everything else. No static was heard over the radio. Naomi tilted her flashlight around, looking for some hope that there was something more to this. It skimmed over something and she had to go back again.


	14. 14th Break: Down the Rabbit Hole

A child's drawing stood out in chalk. In pink there were two people standing, and one fallen. In purple was a cavernous hole beneath them. Naomi tilted her head. "Hey... Jinx... what do you possibly think this is." Naomi stared at it and slowly the irony came to her. "You don't think we absolutely have to fight that thing... do you?"

She scooted closer to Naomi, the cramped dark of their hiding space was doing wonders for the cuts along her legs and the general pin-prickly feeling that boy had given her. "I think.." She trailed off uncertainly. Jinx swallowed softly and sighed, tugging at the long hank of red hair while she mused. "I-I think so butterfly. He didn't look dangerous, just felt….wrong." She said. The static had faded as soon as they entered, but she still felt as if the eyes were watching her. "Maybe, he's the lock to home?" She asked, peering at the picture in the dim light.

Naomi sighed and nodded, swallowing hard. She didn't want to do this. She didn't want to have to fight this thing. This... monster... he looked like... but she couldn't imagine why. "Alright... then let's do it." Naomi gripped the pipe hard and looked at Jinx. Are you ready?

Jinx nodded, swallowing hard as she opened the door back up. There, in the middle of the courtyard, stood the boy, waiting for them. The radio hissed to life with a wave of static causing Jinx to crouch automatically just outside the door. It was a child, and that stalled Jinx. Most Players in the Before had been children too, but this? It actually made her sweat just by looking at it. "Nao…..it's gonna die. I won't hold back." She warned the butterfly softly.

"We can't ever hold back here, Jinxy. He's gotta die." She said quietly. Her brother had been twelve when he'd been killed. She'd been six. Naomi stared at him quietly. Now she was the older one, because she'd lived. She'd survived. Now she was going to make sure this was going to be the end. "Let's do this." Naomi was suddenly upon the monster. He was quicker than she'd thought he would but, but she tried anyway. She swung her pipe, despite the chill he left within her, despite the tired ache she began to feel. She fought him, and in his own way, he fought back.

She tried to weave herself into the macabre dance happening between Nao and the Boy. Every time he dodged the butterfly's attack, she'd rip at him with her claws. Every time she got near though, the cold ripped at her insides. Dragging forth memories best left forgotten. After a pass where she managed to rip into the boys shoulders, 'black blood! Eww', Jinx was swarmed with a memory of a particularly bad time. She'd bled so much, the guard where sure she'd die. Shaking her head, Jinx lunged away from the boy with a choked cough. "Nao! Use the gun!"

Then gun? Naomi's insides felt frozen. Her nose was bloody, her head hurt. Something this boy was doing was making her weak to the point of breaking. But the gun? That was how he'd died last time. Those three holes in his head... gunshot wounds. She felt sick. "G-gun... Jinxy... I..." She shook her head in horror.

Jinx stared as Nao shook her head. The Boy seemed to be laughing at them. Why would Nao hesitate? The thing had to die, she said so herself. Hissing, Jinx jumped at the boy, claws outstretched, and hung on to him. Ripping and tearing at anything she could reach while memories of brutal hands, hooks, knives, laughing voices, and the feel of being torn apart from the inside racked through her. "Naomi! GET THE GUN!"

Naomi began to cry. Not just tears leaking down her face, no, this was the snot nosed kind of cry. Shaking hands and blurry vision, she pulled out the gun. "Move... Jinx." She aimed quietly, both hands on the gun. She squeezed the trigger four times, her eyes closing.

She sprung out of the way just in time, the bullets almost magnetically drawn to the holes already there in the Boy's body. Jinx scrambled towards the Butterfly and watched as the boy fell to the ground. The static over the radio was slowly dimming to a faint hiss as the black blood spread outward slowly. "Sorry Nao-ne-na-o. I-…..sorry." She whispered, tugging at the woman's sweater.

Naomi dropped to her knees and cried, holding on to Jinx. She felt like death, her nose ran with blood and she wiped it on the sleeve of the sweater. "I wanna go home." She sobbed. This place was too much. It kept dragging Nao back into her past. That wasn't her anymore, that wasn't where she belonged. The black blood continued to spread, and before they realized it, they began to sink into it.

Jinx let out a shriek as the sickeningly warm, black blood pulled them in. As if it were trying to avenge its previous form. Not far from her Nao was sinking too. Jinx pulled and struggled, trying to get them out, but it was too late and they were falling through the blackness. The impact knocked her into blessed unconsciousness, though she woke again what felt like only moments later gasping and turning to the side. "Butterfly!" She called, the sound seemingly swallowed by the pulsing blackness. The ground felt like metal crosshatching and was almost too hot to stand on. Not far away lay Nao, also covered in the blood-that-wasn't-blood.

Naomi drifted in inky blackness for what seemed like an eternity. It was comforting, inviting, she didn't want to leave it. However, she could hear her name being called. Someone important was calling her. Slowly she was pulled from her sanctuary of darkness to find herself in hell. "J-Jinxy?" She sat up slowly and looked around to the other girl. Both were smeared in the black, tar-y substance that was supposed to be blood.

She tackled the woman, hugging the life out of her. This place had been too much from the beginning. Making them remember things best left forgotten, stealing her Green, making Nao cry. Jinx firmly hated this world. She growled at their surroundings, pawing the blackness of absentmindedly. Not far from them, the girl in the blue dress walked out of the darkness, a soft smile on her lips. "No! No more. Nu-uh. You tell the badness to leave us alone!" She spat at the girl, for lack of anything else to let her rage and helplessness out on.

Alessa shook her head and pointed behind them. Naomi looked. There was a set of tall double doors. Naomi looked at them quietly. "We go through there?"

The girl only nodded in response. Naomi looked warily up at the doors, then back at Jinx. "What do you think?" She asked as she held the girl close to her. She needed the physical contact as much as she needed to go home.

"Dun wanna." She moaned, kicking at the floor. What she really wanted was a tantrum and some time without the constant itchy, icky memories. Nao was just as tire though, Jinx could see that. So she suppressed the urge to whine and throw a fit. "We have to though. The way home, it most likely is. Hau~" She tugged at a lock of hair again and glared between the gate and the girl, back and forth. With a final sigh, Jinx nodded and walked slowly towards the gate with Nao, as if to an execution. The gate shuddered in front of them, slowly opening as they approached.

Nao's only pause was to reload the gun. The room beyond was rather dim, but Naomi kept on going anyway, one arm around Jinx, the other holding the gun. She whimpered slightly as she looked around. Was there no other door? Why didn't one open? The double ones clanked shut behind them. "Jinx... what's going on?" There was a slight stomping noise from somewhere across the room. "The flashlight... Jinx, the flashlight."

Jinx shivered as Icy blue tinted with Red whispered through her mind. She dug the flashlight out of her backpack with too twitchy hands and held it out, turning the bright light on….only to wish she hadn't. There was a thing before them. Taller than anything had a right to be and skeletal. Skin so pale that it was blueish stretched over bones, covering even the eyes and mouth of the thing. It wore a long, tan-white cloak of what looked like leather. Jinx had the sinking feeling that the leather was skin, just as the Pyramid wearing man's had been. Each long, sickeningly thin arm was warped and twisted with long serrated blades shaped like axes protruding from the stick-like arms. It laughed with a garbled, choking hiss as the radio exploded into a frenzied roar.

Another fight. Naomi wanted to cry some more. One, because the being before them was scarier than anything else they'd encountered so far. Two, because she had hoped they could go home now. She immediately raised the gun and began firing at the thing. She had to get home, not only for her, but for Jinx. They had to make it home.

Jinx moved as Nao started shooting at the thing, vaulting as the thing hauled out to slice Nao in half. She blocked the slice with her claws, almost losing her footing when the blade clashed against her with such force that it rattled her bones. "Nao, move away! I'll get closer." She called to her butterfly. They had bullet, but not that many. Swallowing her fear, Jinx bathed her mind in a Blue-red glow and attacked.

Naomi moved back and reloaded the gun. They had four more clips. She watched at the monster grappled with Jinx, swinging its axe arms at the girl and trying to smash her with them. When Naomi had a clear shot, she aimed for the head and shot. They had to bring it down.

She dodged another strike of the harsh bladed arms, blood pulsing from a wound on her side where the thing had caught her off guard. The Black raged inside her head as she wove her way closer to the things main body. One shot from Nao caught it straight between where the eyes should have been causing it to shake, no longer steady on its feet, and fall to the ground, almost crushing Jinx. "Now! Time to play!" She crowed, slashing ans slicing her way along the midsection of the thing, ripping huge gashes in the too-tight skin where ever she could.

Naomi growled and unloaded the rest of the clip and another into the thing's head as it struggled against them. How ever, it was two against one, and not having very useful hands, it was having a hard time rising again. They didn't stop until it was dead. Naomi dropped the empty gun and backed away from the thing, staring at its lifeless body. "Can we go home now..?"

Jinx collapsed as the thing finally died, falling to her butt while gasping in the chilly air, she was covered head-to-toe in blood. "Uuugh. Yes please~" She moaned, letting herself fall back to lay and stare at the blackness above, panting. The floor didn't feel so hot anymore now. Pretty warm actually, causing Jinx to hum in contentment. All around, thing whispers of light flowed up from the floor as the monstrous thing melted away. She jumped up, staring around them, before running to glue herself to Nao's side. "Sparkly~" She whispered as the floor turned a brilliant white. All around them the dank, black chamber dissolved into warmth and light as thin strips of the glowing floor seemed to dissolve into the air, flowing like living ribbons of various colors. She suddenly felt tired as a voice seemed to call out to them, interspersed with various shouts and a whispered plea. Pressing her face into her butterfly's side, Jinx closed her eyes to the almost blinding brilliance and fell once again.


	15. 15th Break: Silent Once Again

Alessa watched them go into that room. She knew what lie in wait for them. They would battle death itself, that would be their last trial. She smiled slightly to herself.

Standing in place for a moment, she listened. She could hear nothing beyond that door, but it didn't surprise her. She tilted her head and regarded it a moment longer. Then, turning, she left this place. She left the black room beneath Silent Hill. She ascended back to where she'd been before, in front of the school.

She felt strangely accomplished, but she knew it wouldn't be enough to release her from this place. It would be a long time before this part of her spirit were allowed to rest. For now, she'd stay here, helping determine people's fates, and reliving her own past.

Once again she fell into that long sleep. The one which she'd wake out of when the town's next visitor came to call. It was only a matter of time until it happened. As always, she'd be eagerly awaiting to welcome them here.

Silent Hill then fell truly silent. The nurses stayed frozen in time, no light or movement to give them will to move. The "dogs" went on their merry way, chasing each other down for sport. The lacquers, the doctor masked smog, the shadow children, the tentacled monsters, they all disappeared, as they were made specially for those girls that had visited here in death. Their trial was over, those monsters were no longer needed.

Thus was the fate of everything in Silent Hill.


	16. 16th Break: Heart and Hearth

Naomi opened her eyes to a light blue sky. The last thing she remembered, the great, black cavernous room was becoming a big, white light and she'd felt sleepy. Clutched to her side was Jinx, fast asleep. There were soft murmurs a few meters away. Naomi sat up slowly and rubbed her head. She heard a gasp.

"Naomi!" The relieved voice belonged to Liz. Her deep, brown eyes shone with un-shed tears. "You're alive. We thought we'd lost you." She hugged Naomi.

"How... how did you bring us back?"

"Phoenix Down... We've been up all night looking for everything we needed..." Liz's hands were stained pink with blood.

Naomi felt dizzy. She lay back down, listening to the others' footsteps as they came closer. Did all of that really happen, then?

She moaned into the dusty rock and rolled onto her back instead. The air smelled like magic and chocobo. A smile split her face as Jinx sat up and hummed. Enxydys, who'd made her way over when the others noticed they were waking up, crouched in front of the girl with a worried look. "Hey there girl. Ya gave me a scare there, what with the dying an' all." She said in that raspy voice that Jinx found she really loved, her accent thick and a welcome sound. "ENXY!" She shrieked and launched herself at the woman, firmly wrapping herself around her 'Mother' and not willing to let go, even when they crashed to the ground. "Home. Homehomehome. Hau~ Jinxy missed you, she did! Nao took good care of her, but the monsters were scary and Jinxy doesn't want to die not ever again. Nope!"She rattled off, trailing into a hum of some tune.

Naomi felt tears spring to her eyes as suddenly the chatter started. Everyone was expressing their worry, their relief, their love. She felt somehow out of place among this, after having spent all that time in that dark, unforgiving world of death.

Standing, the dark haired girl hugged her friends. Misery stood off to the side, a knowing smile on her face. Naomi made a bee line for her and hugged her gently. "Sometimes we see places that others do not have the misfortune of seeing. They leave a mark on us, Naomi. Invisible, but there. Don't let those memories haunt you." The older woman whispered in her ear. Naomi hugged her mentor tighter.

Warm hands petted her hair and even Jant smiled and welcomed her home…in his own way. Nina had even hugged her. Surrounded by love like this, Jinx was pretty sure that all of it was worth the terror and pain. She still had something to do though. Getting up, she trotted to where her Butterfly stood with another lady and tugged at her sweater, the picture of contrition. "Nao-ne-na-o….Jinx's sorry. It was my fault that we went to…." She broke of shuddering and then decided, brushing her bangs back to look Naomi in the eyes. "I'm sorry Nao."

Naomi smiled softly, and looked down into eyes near the color of her own. She pulled the younger girl to her. "It was never your fault, Jinxy. We made it, and that's all that matters. I love you very much." Naomi held Jinx in her arms. She knew now that they were safe, and that her little sister and she would never be parted from their family ever again.


End file.
